Abstract
Microalgae have received widespread interest owing to their potential in biofuel production. However, economical microalgal biomass production is conditioned by enhancing the lipid accumulation without decreasing growth rate or by increasing both simultaneously. While extensive investigation has been performed on promoting the economic feasibility of microalgal-based biofuel production that aims to increase the productivity of microalgae species, only a handful of them deal with increasing lipid productivity (based on lipid contents and growth rate) in the feedstock production process. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the recent advances and novel approaches in promoting lipid productivity (depends on biomass and lipid contents) in feedstock production from strain selection to after-harvesting stages. The current study comprises two parts. In the first part, bilateral improving biomass/lipid production will be investigated in upstream measures, including strain selection, genetic engineering, and cultivation stages. In the second part, the enhancement of lipid productivity will be discussed in the downstream measure included in the harvesting and after-harvesting stages. An integrated approach involving the strategies for increasing lipid productivity in up- and down-stream measures can be a breakthrough approach that would promote the commercialization of market-driven microalgae-derived biofuel production.
Highlights
The age of inexpensive fossil fuels is ending
The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the recent advances and novel approaches in promoting lipid productivity in the biofuel production process from strain selection to after-harvesting stages
Microalgae can produce higher lipids/biomass productivity compared with terrestrial plants, commercialization of the microalgae-derived biofuels is hampered by the production of the high cell density culture with high lipid content [162]
Summary
The age of inexpensive fossil fuels is ending. The rapid increase in the world’s population and the rising demand for energy are global challenges that have presented themselves over the past couple of centuries [1,2,3]. It is commonly known that selecting the fast-growing oleaginous algal species would translate directly to an overall feedstock production process [21] In this regard, researchers have focused their efforts on the screening of microalgae strains with higher biomass and lipid productivities. For increasing lipid content in algae, additional approaches, such as applying different stresses during the biomass production process have been proposed Such stressful conditions often have a negative impact on the microalgae growth rate, leading to a decrease in the desired product yield. Aziz et al [41] highlighted the potential of a two-stage culture strategy for simultaneous lipid and biomass production and modified the pre-harvesting stage to promote the economic viability of this strategy In one of such studies, Bhatia et al [42] discussed different types of wastewater and summarized the recent approaches in algal cultivation and harvesting technologies from wastewater.
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