Biofuel from Microalgae: Sustainable Pathways

Alvin B. Culaba, Aristotle T. Ubando, Phoebe Mae L. Ching, Wei-Hsin Chen and Jo-Shu Chang
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Alvin B. Culaba: Mechanical Engineering Department, De La Salle University, 2401 Taft Avenue, Manila 0922, Philippines
Aristotle T. Ubando: Mechanical Engineering Department, De La Salle University, 2401 Taft Avenue, Manila 0922, Philippines
Phoebe Mae L. Ching: Industrial Engineering Department, De La Salle University, 2401 Taft Avenue, Manila 0922, Philippines
Wei-Hsin Chen: Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
Jo-Shu Chang: Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-19

Abstract: As the demand for biofuels increases globally, microalgae offer a viable biomass feedstock to produce biofuel. With abundant sources of biomass in rural communities, these materials could be converted to biodiesel. Efforts are being done in order to pursue commercialization. However, its main usage is for other applications such as pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and aquaculture, which has a high return of investment. In the last 5 decades of algal research, cultivation to genetically engineered algae have been pursued in order to push algal biofuel commercialization. This will be beneficial to society, especially if coupled with a good government policy of algal biofuels and other by-products. Algal technology is a disruptive but complementary technology that will provide sustainability with regard to the world’s current issues. Commercialization of algal fuel is still a bottleneck and a challenge. Having a large production is technical feasible, but it is not economical as of now. Efforts for the cultivation and production of bio-oil are still ongoing and will continue to develop over time. The life cycle assessment methodology allows for a sustainable evaluation of the production of microalgae biomass to biodiesel.

Keywords: algae; biofuel production; environmental policy; life cycle assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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