An overview on biofuel and biochemical production by photosynthetic microorganisms with understanding of the metabolism and by metabolic engineering together with efficient cultivation and downstream processing

Dayanidhi Sarkar,Kazuyuki Shimizu

doi:10.1186/s40643-015-0045-9

Abstract

Biofuel and biochemical production by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria and algae is attractive to improve energy security and to reduce CO2 emission, contributing to the environmental problems such as global warming. Although biofuel production by photosynthetic microorganisms is called as the third generation biofuels, and significant innovation is necessary for the feasibility in practice, these fuels are attractive due to renewable and potentially carbon neutral resources. Moreover, photosynthetic microorganisms are attractive since they can grow on non-arable land and utilize saline and wastewater streams. Highly versatile and genetically tractable photosynthetic microorganisms need to capture solar energy and convert atmospheric and waste CO2 to high-energy chemical products. Understanding of the metabolism and the efficient metabolic engineering of the photosynthetic organisms together with cultivation and separation processes as well as increased CO2 assimilation enables the enhancement of the feasibility of biofuel and biochemical production.

Highlights

International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) keeps warning the global society on global warming caused by green-house gases such as CO2 based on the accumulating data and the reliable prediction model
We focus on the typical photosynthetic microorganisms such as algae and cyanobacteria and attempted to make a review on the metabolic regulation, metabolic engineering, and process development with efficient operation for the production of biofuels and chemicals to understand the current status and expect future perspectives
Metabolism of photosynthetic microorganisms Oxygenic photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae, and cyanobacteria convert sunlight and CO2 into chemical energy and biomass

Summary

Introduction

International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) keeps warning the global society on global warming caused by green-house gases such as CO2 based on the accumulating data and the reliable prediction model. The third generation biofuel production from photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria and algae has been attracted some attention, but the cell growth rate is quite low, and the productivity of the metabolites is significantly low [15]. Cyanobacteria gave rise to the chloroplasts of eukaryotic algae and land plants, and they share many features such as the ability to drive photosynthetic water photolysis and thereby contribute to the production of both atmospheric oxygen and reduced organic carbon [7].

Results

Conclusion