Biofuel production: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract It is increasing clear that biofuels can be a viable source of renewable energy in contrast to the finite nature, geopolitical instability, and deleterious global effects of fossil fuel energy. Collectively, biofuels include any energy-enriched chemicals generated directly through the biological processes or derived from the chemical conversion from biomass of prior living organisms. Predominantly, biofuels are produced from photosynthetic organisms such as photosynthetic bacteria, micro- and macro-algae and vascular land plants. The primary products of biofuel may be in a gas, liquid, or solid form. These products can be further converted by biochemical, physical, and thermochemical methods. Biofuels can be classified into two categories: primary and secondary biofuels. The primary biofuels are directly produced from burning woody or cellulosic plant material and dry animal waste. The secondary biofuels can be classified into three generations that are each indirectly generated from plant and animal material. The first generation of biofuels is ethanol derived from food crops rich in starch or biodiesel taken from waste animal fats such as cooking grease. The second generation is bioethanol derived from non-food cellulosic biomass and biodiesel taken from oil-rich plant seed such as soybean or jatropha. The third generation is the biofuels generated from cyanobacterial, microalgae and other microbes, which is the most promising approach to meet the global energy demands. In this review, we present the recent progresses including challenges and opportunities in microbial biofuels production as well as the potential applications of microalgae as a platform of biomass production. Future research endeavors in biofuel production should be placed on the search of novel biofuel production species, optimization and improvement of culture conditions, genetic engineering of biofuel-producing species, complete understanding of the biofuel production mechanisms, and effective techniques for mass cultivation of microorganisms.

[1]  A. Tsygankov Nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria: A review , 2007, Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology.

[2]  T. Antal,et al.  Production of H2 by sulphur‐deprived cells of the unicellular cyanobacteria Gloeocapsa alpicola and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 during dark incubation with methane or at various extracellular pH , 2005, Journal of applied microbiology.

[3]  R. M. Filho,et al.  Production of bioethanol and other bio-based materials from sugarcane bagasse: Integration to conventional bioethanol production process , 2009 .

[4]  Debabrata Das,et al.  Modeling and optimization of fermentative hydrogen production. , 2011 .

[5]  Ben Hankamer,et al.  Challenges and opportunities for hydrogen production from microalgae , 2016, Plant biotechnology journal.

[6]  Daniel J. Watts,et al.  The development of multi-objective optimization model for excess bagasse utilization: A case study for Thailand , 2008 .

[7]  C. Posten,et al.  Second Generation Biofuels: High-Efficiency Microalgae for Biodiesel Production , 2008, BioEnergy Research.

[8]  Tomohisa Hasunuma,et al.  A review of enzymes and microbes for lignocellulosic biorefinery and the possibility of their application to consolidated bioprocessing technology. , 2013, Bioresource technology.

[9]  C. Lan,et al.  Biofuels from Microalgae , 2008, Biotechnology progress.

[10]  P. Lindblad,et al.  H2 production from marine and freshwater species of green algae during sulfur deprivation and considerations for bioreactor design , 2008 .

[11]  A. Tsygankov,et al.  Extended H2 photoproduction by N2-fixing cyanobacteria immobilized in thin alginate films , 2012 .

[12]  F. Mamedov,et al.  Hydrogen photoproduction in green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under magnesium deprivation , 2015 .

[13]  Seeram Ramakrishna,et al.  Hydrogen photoproduction by use of photosynthetic organisms and biomimetic systems , 2009, Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology.

[14]  N. Ren,et al.  The effect of Ni2+, Fe2+ and Mg2+ concentration on photo-hydrogen production by Rhodopseudomonas faecalis RLD-53 , 2009 .

[15]  Haroon S. Kheshgi,et al.  The Photobiological Production of Hydrogen: Potential Efficiency and Effectiveness as a Renewable Fuel , 2005, Critical reviews in microbiology.

[16]  Robert Lee Biodiesel production from jatropha oil and its characterization , 2011 .

[17]  Rashmi,et al.  Prospects of biodiesel production from microalgae in India , 2009 .

[18]  Richard Sparling,et al.  Linking genome content to biofuel production yields: a meta-analysis of major catabolic pathways among select H2and ethanol-producing bacteria , 2012, BMC Microbiology.

[19]  Olaf Kruse,et al.  Photosynthesis: a blueprint for solar energy capture and biohydrogen production technologies , 2005, Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology.

[20]  C. Howe,et al.  Biodiesel from algae: challenges and prospects. , 2010, Current opinion in biotechnology.

[21]  R. Razeghifard Algal biofuels , 2013, Photosynthesis Research.

[22]  Kajan Srirangan,et al.  Biochemical and genetic engineering strategies to enhance hydrogen production in photosynthetic algae and cyanobacteria. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[23]  D. Klaus,et al.  The effect of butyrate concentration on hydrogen production via photofermentation for use in a Martian habitat resource recovery process , 2007 .

[24]  Matthew C. Posewitz,et al.  Photosynthetic Water‐Splitting for Hydrogen Production , 2008 .

[25]  P. Lindblad,et al.  A brief look at three decades of research on cyanobacterial hydrogen evolution , 2002 .

[26]  Michael Seibert,et al.  Hydrogenases and hydrogen photoproduction in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. , 2007, Annual review of plant biology.

[27]  Ta Yeong Wu,et al.  Biohydrogen production through photo fermentation or dark fermentation using waste as a substrate: Overview, economics, and future prospects of hydrogen usage , 2013 .

[28]  Serge R. Guiot,et al.  Integration of microalgae cultivation with industrial waste remediation for biofuel and bioenergy production: opportunities and limitations , 2011, Photosynthesis Research.

[29]  Prasant Kumar Rout,et al.  Production of first and second generation biofuels: A comprehensive review , 2010 .

[30]  Jana Stöckel,et al.  High rates of photobiological H2 production by a cyanobacterium under aerobic conditions. , 2010, Nature communications.

[31]  I. Eroglu,et al.  Biohydrogen production from beet molasses by sequential dark and photofermentation , 2010 .

[32]  A. Guss,et al.  Metabolic engineering of Caldicellulosiruptor bescii yields increased hydrogen production from lignocellulosic biomass , 2013, Biotechnology for Biofuels.

[33]  Y. Chisti Biodiesel from microalgae. , 2007, Biotechnology advances.

[34]  P. Maness,et al.  Overcoming substrate limitations for improved production of ethylene in E. coli , 2016, Biotechnology for Biofuels.

[35]  Tara Singh Bisht,et al.  Coupling of Algal Biofuel Production with Wastewater , 2014, TheScientificWorldJournal.

[36]  Lu Zhang,et al.  Sustained photobiological hydrogen gas production upon reversible inactivation of oxygen evolution in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. , 2000, Plant physiology.

[37]  E. Greenbaum The Photosynthetic Unit of Hydrogen Evolution , 1977, Science.

[38]  Glenn Hicks,et al.  Plastidial phosphorylase is required for normal starch synthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. , 2006, The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology.

[39]  D. Das,et al.  Liquid Fuels Production from Algal Biomass , 2015 .

[40]  William E. Newton,et al.  Nitrogen Fixation and Hydrogen Metabolism in Cyanobacteria , 2010, Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews.

[41]  K. Heimann Novel approaches to microalgal and cyanobacterial cultivation for bioenergy and biofuel production. , 2016, Current opinion in biotechnology.

[42]  Dhrubo Jyoti Sen,et al.  Bioalcohol As Green Energy -A review , 2011 .

[43]  Michael Seibert,et al.  HYDROGEN PRODUCTION BY PHOTOSYNTHETIC MICROORGANISMS , 2004 .

[44]  Matthias Schumacher,et al.  Photoproduction of hydrogen by Rhodobacter capsulatus from thermophilic fermentation effluent , 2009, Bioprocess and biosystems engineering.

[45]  J. Nielsen,et al.  Advanced biofuel production by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. , 2013, Current opinion in chemical biology.

[46]  Godfrey Kyazze,et al.  The potential for hydrogen-enriched biogas production from crops: Scenarios in the UK , 2007 .

[47]  T. Veziroglu,et al.  Hydrogen production using photobiological methods , 2015 .

[48]  Raphael Slade,et al.  Micro-algae cultivation for biofuels: Cost, energy balance, environmental impacts and future prospects , 2013 .

[49]  E. Aro,et al.  Chapter 21 – Recent Developments on Cyanobacteria and Green Algae for Biohydrogen Photoproduction and Its Importance in CO2 Reduction , 2014 .

[50]  D. Das Algal Biorefinery: An Integrated Approach , 2015 .

[51]  John R. Benemann,et al.  Hydrogen production by microalgae , 2000, Journal of Applied Phycology.

[52]  J. V. Gerpen,et al.  Biodiesel processing and production , 2005 .

[53]  J. Benemann,et al.  Hydrogen Evolution by Nitrogen-Fixing Anabaena cylindrica Cultures , 1974, Science.

[54]  B. Henrissat,et al.  Genomic Evaluation of Thermoanaerobacter spp. for the Construction of Designer Co-Cultures to Improve Lignocellulosic Biofuel Production , 2013, PloS one.

[55]  C. Lan,et al.  CO2 bio-mitigation using microalgae , 2008, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[56]  L. Domingues,et al.  Technological trends, global market, and challenges of bio-ethanol production. , 2010, Biotechnology advances.

[57]  Lemi Türker,et al.  Hydrogen production and transcriptional analysis of nifD, nifK and hupS genes in Rhodobacter sphaeroides O.U.001 grown in media with different concentrations of molybdenum and iron , 2006 .

[58]  G. Stephanopoulos,et al.  Engineering the push and pull of lipid biosynthesis in oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica for biofuel production. , 2013, Metabolic engineering.

[59]  R. Dinsdale,et al.  Fermentative biohydrogen production systems integration. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[60]  Jian-Ren Shen,et al.  Current Insights to Enhance Hydrogen Production by Photosynthetic Organisms , 2016 .

[61]  D. Hall,et al.  Acetylene reduction and hydrogen photoproduction by wild-type and mutant strains of Anabaena at different CO2 and O2 concentrations , 1998 .

[62]  António A. Vicente,et al.  Third generation biofuels from microalgae , 2010 .

[63]  E. Greenbaum Photosynthetic Hydrogen and Oxygen Production: Kinetic Studies , 1982, Science.

[64]  Anoop Singh,et al.  Renewable fuels from algae: an answer to debatable land based fuels. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[65]  J. Benemann,et al.  Hydrogen biotechnology: Progress and prospects , 1996, Nature Biotechnology.

[66]  Junzhi Liu,et al.  Growth characteristics of Botryococcus braunii 765 under high CO2 concentration in photobioreactor. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[67]  A. Abdelaziz,et al.  Addressing the challenges for sustainable production of algal biofuels: II. Harvesting and conversion to biofuels , 2013, Environmental technology.

[68]  J. Willison,et al.  Hydrogenase, nitrogenase, and hydrogen metabolism in the photosynthetic bacteria. , 1985, Advances in microbial physiology.

[69]  A. Tsygankov,et al.  Immobilization of Photosynthetic Microorganisms for Efficient Hydrogen Production , 2014 .

[70]  Peter Lindblad,et al.  Potential for green microalgae to produce hydrogen, pharmaceuticals and other high value products in a combined process , 2012, Critical reviews in biotechnology.

[71]  Ayhan Demirbas,et al.  Political, economic and environmental impacts of biofuels: A review , 2009 .

[72]  Mohd Ali Hassan,et al.  Biohydrogen production from biomass and industrial wastes by dark fermentation , 2009 .

[73]  Luis M. Serra,et al.  Analysis of process steam demand reduction and electricity generation in sugar and ethanol production from sugarcane , 2007 .

[74]  X. Miao,et al.  High quality biodiesel production from a microalga Chlorella protothecoides by heterotrophic growth in fermenters. , 2006, Journal of biotechnology.

[75]  Shuyi Zhang,et al.  Metabolic engineering of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 to produce poly-3-hydroxybutyrate and poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate. , 2015, Metabolic engineering.

[76]  Matthew R Melnicki,et al.  Integrated biological hydrogen production , 2006 .

[77]  Qiang Wang,et al.  Current Status and Outlook in the Application of Microalgae in Biodiesel Production and Environmental Protection , 2014, Front. Energy Res..

[78]  Ayhan Demirbas,et al.  Biofuels sources, biofuel policy, biofuel economy and global biofuel projections , 2008 .

[79]  A. Melis,et al.  Engineering a platform for photosynthetic isoprene production in cyanobacteria, using Synechocystis as the model organism. , 2010, Metabolic engineering.

[80]  W. V. van Zyl,et al.  High level secretion of cellobiohydrolases by Saccharomyces cerevisiae , 2011, Biotechnology for biofuels.

[81]  K Schulten,et al.  Approaches to developing biological H(2)-photoproducing organisms and processes. , 2005, Biochemical Society transactions.

[82]  R. Zhou,et al.  Molecular genetic improvements of cyanobacteria to enhance the industrial potential of the microbe: A review , 2016, Biotechnology progress.

[83]  Anoop Singh,et al.  Production of liquid biofuels from renewable resources , 2011 .

[84]  Qingfang He,et al.  Assessment of Environmental Stresses for Enhanced Microalgal Biofuel Production – An Overview , 2014, Front. Energy Res..

[85]  Firoz Alam,et al.  Biofuel from Algae- Is It a Viable Alternative? , 2012 .

[86]  D. Das,et al.  Gaseous Fuels Production from Algal Biomass , 2015 .

[87]  R. Schlögl,et al.  Steam reforming of methanol over Cu/ZrO2/CeO2 catalysts: a kinetic study , 2005 .

[88]  C. M. Kinoshita,et al.  Thermochemical production of methanol from biomass in Hawaii , 1990 .

[89]  Michael A. Wilson,et al.  Catalytic upgrading of biorefinery oil from micro-algae , 2010 .

[90]  James C Liao,et al.  Next generation biofuel engineering in prokaryotes. , 2013, Current opinion in chemical biology.

[91]  Jack Rubin,et al.  FERMENTATIVE AND PHOTOCHEMICAL PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN IN ALGAE , 1942, The Journal of general physiology.

[92]  S. Razzak,et al.  Integrated CO2 capture, wastewater treatment and biofuel production by microalgae culturing—A review , 2013 .

[93]  L. Stal,et al.  Oxygen and the light-dark cycle of nitrogenase activity in two unicellular cyanobacteria. , 2010, Environmental microbiology.

[94]  M. Ghirardi,et al.  Photobiological hydrogen-producing systems. , 2009, Chemical Society reviews.

[95]  Seeram Ramakrishna,et al.  Photoelectrochemical cells based on photosynthetic systems: a review , 2015 .

[96]  Baozhen Li,et al.  Optimization of the biomass production of oil algae Chlorella minutissima UTEX2341. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[97]  R. Schulz,et al.  HYDROGEN METABOLISM IN ORGANISMS WITH OXYGENIC PHOTOSYNTHESIS : HYDROGENASES AS IMPORTANT REGULATORY DEVICES FOR A PROPER REDOX POISING? , 1998 .

[98]  A. Melis,et al.  Solar energy conversion efficiencies in photosynthesis: Minimizing the chlorophyll antennae to maximize efficiency , 2009 .

[99]  Roseanne M. Ford,et al.  Solar Photobiochemistry: Simultaneous Photoproduction of Hydrogen and Oxygen in a Confined Bioreactor , 2001 .

[100]  Alfredo Cadenas,et al.  Biofuels as Sustainable Technologies: Perspectives for Less Developed Countries , 1998 .

[101]  James C Liao,et al.  Direct photosynthetic recycling of carbon dioxide to isobutyraldehyde , 2009, Nature Biotechnology.

[102]  T. Nejat Veziroglu,et al.  Review: Biofuel Production from Plant and Algal Biomass , 2016, Alternative Energy and Ecology (ISJAEE).