Utilization of microalgal biomass as a source of bioenergy

Abstract

The consumption of fossil fuels and accumulation of greenhouse gases in the environment attract researchers worldwide to focus more on developing an alternative renewable and potentially carbon neutral biofuel. Microalgae have the potential to solve both the issues simultaneously by CO2 sequestration from the environment to increase its biomass and use of this biomass for biofuels production. Knowing the potential of photosynthetic microalgae, research studies focusing their utilization as feedstock for biofuel production has been carried out recently by many groups. Microalgae have added advantage that it can grow in waste water, are photosynthetic and unlike first and second generation biofuels it does not put strain on food market or changes in land use. This chapter reviews microalgae use for biofuels generation along with their large scale biomass production, harvesting techniques, pretreatment/processing and conversion of microalgae to biofuel using biochemical process. © 2018 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.