Recent Advances in Production of Biofuel and Commodity Chemicals from Algal Biomass

Abstract

Algal biomass is considered among promising sources of biorenewable feedstock which is capable to meet growing energy and chemical demands. Agile growth rate and high oil yield per acre of land make it an interesting resource to produce biofuel in a sustainable manner. Indeed, various technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, liquefaction, catalytic cracking, enzymatic, and biochemical methods have been reported for production of biofuel from algal biomass. Interestingly, majority of the processes can be classified into three categories namely thermal route, catalytic route, and biological route, at a broader scale, thus forms the basis of this chapter. On the contrary, algal biomass has several other promising aspects, such as to produce high value commodity chemicals and monomers, besides conventional application as a source of fuel. Overall, algal biomass conversion to biofuel and commodity chemicals holds a great future. However, certain challenges (such as techno-economic feasibility and biogenic impurities) associated with algal biomass conversion technologies need to be overcome before it scales up to a commercial process. Thus, in this chapter we have discussed recent advances in biofuel production from algal biomass via different routes with emphasis on some of the emerging routes which holds more economic value as compared to traditional processes.