The Microalgae Biorefinery: A Perspective on the Current Status and Future Opportunities Using Genetic Modification

There is clear scientific evidence that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), arising from fossil fuel combustion and land-use change as a result of human activities, are perturbing the Earth’s climate. Microalgae-derived biofuels have been chased since the 1980s without success but, lately, a new bi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied sciences 2019-11, Vol.9 (22), p.4793
Main Authors: Schiano di Visconte, Gino, Spicer, Andrew, Chuck, Christopher J., Allen, Michael J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Aquatic microorganisms
Biodiesel fuels
Biofuels
biorefinery
biotechnology
Crude oil prices
Fuel combustion
Genetic modification
gmo
Greenhouse gases
Human influences
Land use
Liquid fuels
Metabolites
microalgae
New technology
Petroleum refineries
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:There is clear scientific evidence that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), arising from fossil fuel combustion and land-use change as a result of human activities, are perturbing the Earth’s climate. Microalgae-derived biofuels have been chased since the 1980s without success but, lately, a new biorefinery concept is receiving increasing attention. Here, we discuss the possible solutions to the many problems that make this process unrealised to date, considering also the possibility of including genetically modified (GM) organisms to improve the productivity and process economics. Currently, unless coupled to a service or higher value product production, biofuels derived from microalgae fail to achieve economic reality. However, provided sufficient development of new technologies, potentially including new or improved organisms to lower both production and processing costs, as well as looking at the utility of distributed versus centralised production models, algae biofuels could achieve an impact, off-setting our heavy reliance on petroleum-based liquid fuels.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app9224793