Abstract
The current scenario in renewable energy is focused on development of alternate and sustainable energy sources, amongst which microalgae stands as one of the promising feedstock for biofuel production. It is well known that microalgae generate much larger amounts of biofuels in a shorter time than other sources based on plant seeds. However, the greatest challenge in a transition to algae-based biofuel production is the various other complications involved in microalgal cultivation, its harvesting, concentration, drying and lipid extraction. Several green microalgae accumulate lipids, especially triacylglycerols (TAGs), which are main precursors in the production of lipid. The various aspects on metabolic pathway analysis of an oleaginous microalgae i.e., Chlamydomonas reinhardtii have elucidated some novel metabolically important genes and this enhances the lipid production in this microalgae. Adding to it, various other aspects in metabolic engineering using OptFlux and effectual bioprocess design also gives an interactive snapshot of enhancing lipid production which ultimately improvises the oil yield. This article reviews the current status of microalgal based technologies for biofuel production, bioreactor process design, flux analysis and it also provides various strategies to increase lipids accumulation via metabolic engineering.
Highlights
In recent times, microalgae have gained attention due to the depletion of non-renewable fossil fuel
Biomass produced from microalgae has excellent prospects to convert into biofuel due to the low emission of CO2 compared to other biomass sources
Metabolic engineering approach coinciding with other strategies like genetic engineering, flux balance, identifying target pathway and its enzymes are the key factors toward the achieving the target of producing fuel from microalgae
Summary
Microalgae have gained attention due to the depletion of non-renewable fossil fuel. Metabolic engineering approach coinciding with other strategies like genetic engineering, flux balance, identifying target pathway and its enzymes are the key factors toward the achieving the target of producing fuel from microalgae. Identification of genes involved in enzyme and integrating with complex metabolism is really difficult without base/model system This difficulty has led to development of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model system in eukaryotic microalgae. Researchers have been focused on the development of high lipid content microalgae using metabolic engineering approach and cultivated in large scale open pond for biofuel production, and capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants as biological emission control process (Brennan and Owende, 2010). Identification and target to increase fatty acid content in microalgae different enzymes involves in rate limiting steps of pathways. Lipid engineering in microalgae can be achieved by conventional, genetic engineering and metabolic engineering approaches
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