Abstract
Roadmaps towards sustainable bioeconomy, including the production of biofuels, in many EU countries mostly rely on biomass use. However, although biomass is renewable, the efficiency of biomass production is too low to be able to fully replace the fossil fuels. The use of land for fuel production also introduces ethical problems in increasing the food price. Harvesting solar energy by the photosynthetic machinery of plants and autotrophic microorganisms is the basis for all biomass production. This paper describes current challenges and possibilities to sustainably increase the biomass production and highlights future technologies to further enhance biofuel production directly from sunlight. The biggest scientific breakthroughs are expected to rely on a new technology called “synthetic biology”, which makes engineering of biological systems possible. It will enable direct conversion of solar energy to a fuel from inexhaustible raw materials: sun light, water and CO2. In the future, such solar biofuels are expected to be produced in engineered photosynthetic microorganisms or in completely synthetic living factories.
Highlights
Biofuels are derived from biological material, presently mainly from plants, microorganisms, animals and wastes
All biofuels have the same basic and renewable origin. They are based by the ‘‘present-day’’ photosynthetic conversion of solar energy to chemical energy, which sets them apart from fossil fuels that are based on ancient photosynthesis
The line between renewable biofuels and non-renewable fossil fuels is sometimes vague and only complete life-cycle analyses in the future will reveal which feedstocks are truly renewable to be used in biofuel production
Summary
Biofuels are derived from biological material, presently mainly from plants, microorganisms, animals and wastes. One needs to discover new-to-nature solutions and construct synthetic living factories and designer microorganisms for efficient and direct conversion of solar energy to fuel.
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