Potential of microalgae as a source of bioenergy

Abstract

This review deals with the current trends in the use of vegetal renewable sources of energy. Microalgal biomass is considered to be the most promising renewable raw material since microalgae grow at a high rate and exceed the other cultures in productivity. Although large-scale technologies for production of energy-rich biomass to be converted into biofuels are at their early stages of development, recent advances in this area augur commercialization of these technologies in the near future. The advanced catalytic methods being developed (such as transesterification and hydrocracking) allow the microalgal biomass to be efficiently converted into biofuels. In order to obtain high-grade hydrocarbons, it is necessary to carry out the following conversions of the microalgal lipids: hydrolysis for removal of phosphorus-containing compounds, transesterification with methanol over a heterogeneous catalyst, hydrodeoxygenation (hydrocracking), and isomerization. The existence of a wide variety of microalgae processing methods and the growing number of studies in this field suggest that microalgae have great potential as a source of bioenergy.