Open AccessMicroalgal biomass with high potential for the biofuels production
Author(s) -
Manuel Jiménez Escobedo,
Augusto Castillo Calderón
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
scientia agropecuaria
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.137
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 2306-6741
pISSN - 2077-9917
DOI - 10.17268/sci.agropecu.2021.030
Subject(s) - biofuel , biomass (ecology) , biorefinery , biodiesel , bioenergy , biogas , biodiesel production , microbiology and biotechnology , pulp and paper industry , photobioreactor , anaerobic digestion , ethanol fuel , environmental science , waste management , chemistry , biology , agronomy , engineering , ecology , biochemistry , methane , catalysis
The study of biofuels continues in constant development, for five decades. This article summarizes the analysis of several recent scientific publications, related to third generation biofuels using microalgae. An overview of biofuels and their classification, the theoretical bases of microalgae, techniques for their cultivation, harvesting and pretreatment of their biomass are presented. Promising technologies for obtaining biofuels of great potential worldwide demand are also briefly described, considering the technical characteristics of the process, depending on the microalgae species that have the highest yields and productivity for each type of biofuel:Biodiesel (extraction of lipids, transesterification and purification), ethanol (hydrolysis of sugars, fermentation and purification) and biogas (anaerobic digestion).Most studies are focused on the production of lipids, being Chlorella vulgaris, Nanochloropsis sp. and Botryococcus braunii(A) the most used microalgae to obtain biodiesel. However, there are few studies focused on the production of microalgal biomass toproduce bioethanol, thus, the microalgae Porphyridium cruentumand Spirogira sp. they could be used to produce bioethanol, with the advantage of not containing lignin. Biogas is produced by anaerobic biodigestion of microalgal biomass residues in biorefineries, but its commercial production is very limited due to high production costs and because there are other economically very competitive biomasses. The need to produce biofuels using microalgal biomass is reaching a greater boom, the transcendental proposal being the launching of a biorefinery, mainly focused on the optimal production of microalgal biomass as the main key to the entire process.