Courtesy by fuelalternative.com
In the recent past, there has been a lot of discussion and interest around the viability of first generation biofuels as environment-friendly alternatives to foreign oil, primarily because of their possible competition with food crops and the use of non-sustainable practices for their production. Scientists and research groups have been searching for other sustainable sources for biofuel production, and microalgae seem to be one such alternative with a promising potential.
Microalgae are single cell photosynthetic organisms that take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into organic compounds using solar energy. They have a high growth rate, can be grown on non-agricultural land, and have a high oil content. Studies indicate that microalgae could yield 30 times more oil per acre as compared to oil seed crops. Also, the biomass left after extraction of the oil from microalgae can be used for other purposes, such as livestock feed and production of bio-plastics. All these advantages make microalgae a potential candidate for the production of biofuels.
The use of microalgae for biofuel production is presently under research, and most of these research studies focus on producing biodiesel from microalgae. However, it is also possible to use microalgae for the production of other biofuels, such as bioethanol and biobutanol.
However, the complete process for production and processing of microalgae into biofuels on an industrial scale has not yet been proven. A few major challenges being faced by the scientific community in mass production of microalgae include the search for an ideal microalgae species, determining less energy intensive methods than the current one for separation of microalgae from their native water environment, and reducing the high unit cost of biomass production from microalgae. Claudio Fuentes-Grünewald, a PhD scholar at the Institute of Marine Sciences Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, studied the growth of various microalgae species and observed that the species Karlodinium Veneficum could be a good candidate due to its comparatively higher growth rate, density, and oil content.
The field of biofuel production from microalgae is still under study, and lot more research is required to determine how to scale this to mass production. However, if these challenges can be solved and industrial-scale production at low cost can become a reality, microalgae could prove to be a very cost effective and sustainable alternative to foreign oil in the coming years.
