Biodiesel Resources Assessment and Production Capacity Evaluation from Salicornia Plant in Golestan Province, Northeast Iran

Abstract

The biofuel products from halophyte plants are valuable due to their high oil content and growth on non-productive, salt-affected lands. The northern part of Golestan province has high potential for biofuel production from salt-tolerant plants such as Salicornia Bigelovii (oilseed halophyte) due to its water and soil properties. In this paper, the suitable locations for growing of Salicornia plant in Golestan province were defined based on environmental suitability analysis. By this analysis the suitable area for cultivation and total amount of producible biodiesel were evaluated. In this regard, the principal parameters were defined then the suitable areas were specified by spatial superposition of these layers, using Geographical Information System (GIS). Index Overlay model was applied for maps combination in environmental suitability analysis. The results demonstrate that the most suitable lands for growing Salicornia are located in the north-west part of Golestan province with an area of 2365 Km2 corresponding to around %12 of total study area. Total amount of producible biodiesel of this area is estimated to 201.143 million liters per year.

Keywords

• Bioenergy, Biofuel, Site selection, GIS, Salicornia

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