but this could affect the energy balance in case no waste heat is
available. The percentage of dry solids is assumed to be 85%. Based
on the described desired capacity and specific energy consumption,
the energy consumption ratio is calculated and results shown
in Table 9. The power production efficiencies of the selected locations,
see Tables 2 and 5, are used to determine the indirect energy
consumption ratio. The results in Table 9 show clearly the positive
effect of a pre-concentration step on the energy consumption ratio,
especially for raceway ponds. This is due to the large difference in
volume that needs to be processed in the main harvesting step.