Algae Biofuels Production Processes, Carbon Dioxide Fixation and Biorefinery Concept

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms capable to produce lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins as major biomass fractions. Each of these has been studied to produce biofuels. As example biodiesel, bio ethanol, biogas, biooil and bio hydrogen by different processes and conditions. In addition, microalgae are considered an alternative for CO2 emissions fixation since this gas is used by their metabolism. Based on this sustainable alternative, microalgae are considered feedstock to integrate a Bio-refinery, in which different products can be obtained from biofuels to food. In this article, in addition to the literature revision for biofuels production from microalgae, drawbacks and bottlenecks from microalgae technologies are discussed.

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