Biofuels from Microalgae

TLDR

Microalgae are diverse, rapidly growing photosynthetic microorganisms that can be cultivated economically and sustainably to produce biodiesel, bio‑oil, bio‑syngas, and bio‑hydrogen while also enabling CO₂ mitigation, wastewater treatment, high‑value chemical production, and seawater cultivation of marine species. The study aims to advance microalgal cultivation and downstream processing to improve the cost‑effectiveness of microalgae‑derived biofuels. This involves optimizing harvesting, drying, and thermochemical processing techniques.

Abstract

Abstract Microalgae are a diverse group of prokaryotic and eukaryotic photosynthetic microorganisms that grow rapidly due to their simple structure. They can potentially be employed for the production of biofuels in an economically effective and environmentally sustainable manner. Microalgae have been investigated for the production of a number of different biofuels including biodiesel, bio‐oil, bio‐syngas, and bio‐hydrogen. The production of these biofuels can be coupled with flue gas CO 2 mitigation, wastewater treatment, and the production of high‐value chemicals. Microalgal farming can also be carried out with seawater using marine microalgal species as the producers. Developments in microalgal cultivation and downstream processing (e.g., harvesting, drying, and thermochemical processing) are expected to further enhance the cost‐effectiveness of the biofuel from microalgae strategy.