Microalgae Dunaliella as biofuel feedstock and β-carotene production: An influential step towards environmental sustainability

Abstract

Fossil fuels fluctuating market price, and their harmful impacts have shifted the attention towards eco-friendly and renewable fuels. Advanced generations of biofuels revolve around non-agricultural crops. Among them, microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms that have unique characteristics such as remediation of wastewater and mitigation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Also, their biomolecules can be used to produce biofuels. However, the major problem in microalgal biorefinery is their operational cost but that can be overwhelmed by developing low-cost biorefinery processes. The different species of Dunaliella contain a high amount of lipids, carbohydrates, and β-carotene which can be utilized for the production of different types of liquid/gaseous biofuel and health promoter bioproducts. Additionally, it also has the potential to remediate wastewater and mitigate CO2 from the environment. This review provides an overview of species Dunaliella, their biomolecules production metabolism, physiological, nutritional, and molecular approaches for the enhancement of biomolecules production. It also deliberates the applications of Dunaliella for the production of different biofuels, summarizes its health promoter applications and ability of pollutant removal. Further, current market scenario of algal biofuels and β-carotene, recent challenges and opportunities have been addressed and to provide fruitful knowledge about Dunaliella to produce biofuels.