Exploring the potential of microalgae cell factories for generation of biofuels

Abstract

Interest in developing efficient renewable energy systems to address the energy crisis, rising crude oil prices, and the negative environmental impacts of fossil fuels is at the forefront of the modern world. Microalgae are a sustainable biomass source for generating various types of biofuels, from liquid biofuels to gaseous biofuels. Their ubiquitous nature and ability to grow in extreme environmental conditions and use polluted water to convert CO₂ into biomass using photosynthetic energy have great potential and overcome the challenges faced by previous generations of biofuels. The high fat and carbohydrate content of algae offers great potential for their conversion into biodiesel and bioethanol. In addition, the remaining algal biomass can be used to produce biomethane and syngas, as biofertilizers, and in biorefineries to produce other value-added products. This report addresses the processes for producing biofuel from microalgae, including various conversion technologies, biotechnological approaches to improve the overall process, and current challenges in the field.

Keywords:

• Biodiesel
• bioethanol
• biofuel
• genetic engineering
• microalgae

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Department of Microbiology, Sikkim University, for providing the computational infrastructure and central library facilities for procuring references and plagiarism analysis (Urkund-Ouriginal: Plagiarism Detection Software).

Author contributions

Dixita Chettri: Writing – original draft preparation, reviewing and editing. Ashwani Kumar Verma: Writing – original draft preparation. Anil Kumar Verma: Conceptualization, supervision, reviewing and editing.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Table 1. Molecular and metabolic engineering of microalgae for enhanced biomass and biofuel production efficiency.