Abstract
Efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have resulted in enhancement of the position of microalgae in feedstocks for food, feed, healthcare, and biofuels. However, stabile microalgal biorefineries require a sustainable and reliable management system of microalgae, which are sensitive to environmental changes. To expand microalgal applicability, assessment and maintenance of microalgal quality are crucial. Compared with conventional methods, including hemocytometry and turbidity, an automated- and image-based cell counter contributes to the establishment of routine management of microalgae with reduced work burden. This review presents the principle of an automated cell counter and highlights the functional capacities of the device for microalgal management. The method utilizing fluorescence function to evaluate the chlorophyll integrity of microalgae may lay the groundwork for making a large variety of microalgal biorefineries, creating an important step toward achieving SDGs.
Highlights
Following the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations established SDGs that consist of broader aspects than the former goals
Based on the rainbow code of biotechnology, several biotechnology disciplines are classified as follows [1]: green biotechnologies are directed toward the development of agriculture; blue relates to marine and aquatic areas, including marine biotechnology; yellow relates to nutritional biotechnology; red relates to medicine and human health; and gray relates to those that target environmental protection, including earth-friendly approaches, products, and services
It is foreseen that the global algae market will expand at a 7.42% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during the forecast tenure 2019 to 2027, contributing to earnings of around USD 1.37 billion by the end of 2027 [45]
Summary
Following the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations established SDGs that consist of broader aspects than the former goals. Microalgal biorefineries have the following potential uses (Figure 1): as biofertilizer [6,7] (green biotechnology field, contributing to SDGs Nos. 2 and 15); in aquaculture, coastal, and marine areas, as prey for clam and crustacea in the fisheries industry, and as prey for zooplankton, such as rotifers, in farming fisheries [16,17] (contributing to SDGs Nos. 2 and 14); in the development of final products, such as supplements and drugs [9,11,18,19] (yellow and red biotechnology fields, contributing to SDG No 3); and as alternatives to both first-generation biofuels using consumable biomass and second-generation biofuels using lignocellulosic feedstocks by becoming an important feedstock for third-generation biofuels [8,20,21,22] (gray biotechnology, contributing to SDG Nos. 7 and 9 as the achievement of SDG No 7 will impact technology innovation) These expectations stem from the competitive advantage of microalgal biorefineries in terms of sustainability due to their dependence on light and inorganic materials. Routine control, maintenance, and management of algal quality are more important than all other factors
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