Production of Biofuels from Microalgae

The incredible increase in world population, which could reach nine billion by 2050, and the rapid progress of globalization in recent decades have put pressure on the food and energy sectors. The resources currently available for energy production are insufficient to meet future demand. These facts are pushing governments and scientific organizations all over the world to search for alternative renewable energy sources. Microalgae present an ideal, resurgent resource for the production of biofuels, especially biodiesel and biogas, because their lipid productivity is greater than that of other terrestrial food crops. However, from a biotechnological point of view, the use of microalgae requires further investigation and development to be economically viable, particularly in regard to cost and biomass production. The most important step in the use of microalgae for biofuel production is strain selection. The optimal strain must be able to withstand outdoor conditions and survive seasonality. Four related manuscripts were prepared during my Ph.D. project. Two of them have been published, one has been submitted for publication, and the fourth is ready for submission. Together, they focus on new strategies for strain selection, lipid production increase, lipid vesicles detection and imaging, total cost reduction strategies, biodiesel production from promising strains, and biogas production from the remaining microalgal residues. From a practical perspective, only a few microalgal species have been investigated for pharmaceutical and industrial applications. Throughout my Ph.D. project, I have identified microalgal strains able to grow at high temperature and under light stress, as a step toward the development of sustainable microalgal fuels. The four manuscripts that have resulted from my project are described below. In the first manuscript, entitled “Isolation and characterization of thermo-tolerant Egyptian marine microalgae as proposed candidates for biodiesel prod