Potential of Microalgal Biodiesel: Challenges and Applications

1. Introduction

Today’s scientific reports revealed that the world’s commercial primary energy needs are mostly coming from fossil fuel sources. It is forecasted that the primary energy demand by 2035 will increase to 54% and still fossil fuels contribute 82% of the global need [1]. Besides, an increase in the world population and their anthropogenic activities, such as transportation, land use, deforestation, industrialization, waste generation, etc., has been changing the natural structure of the earth. These activities lead to severe global climate problems in the present scenario. A remarkable change in the lifestyle of human beings is also building extra pressure on the production market to fulfill the demands and desires of society.

Nevertheless, the recent production and consumption models mainly rely on fossil fuel resources, which are affecting the environment and natural resources adversely and irreversibly. It has been reported that the majority of the global CO₂ emissions are due to the transport sector and the number of light motor vehicles is estimated to increase to over 2 billion by 2050 [2]. Hence, to address the significant issues such as energy depletion and hazardous gas emission, there is an urgent need for a substantial displacement of fossil fuel usage.

In this context, biofuels produced from biomass rather than fossil source are considered as a potential solution to address these challenges. Currently, researchers have been exploring various types of biofuel production such as solid (biochar), liquid (ethanol, vegetable oil, and biodiesel), and gaseous (biogas, bio-syngas, and biohydrogen), and they were categorized based on the type of feedstock used. It has been reported that the first-generation liquid biofuels which are produced using edible feedstock such as corn, soybean, sugarcane, and rapeseed have directly competed with food production. Meanwhile, food production is the other most critical challenge to society [3]. The second-generation biofuel production has been developed using the nonedible feedstock such as Jatropha, Switchgrass, etc.; however, these nonedible feedstocks also compete with food production [4]. Mainly the second-generation biofuel production relies on arable land, freshwater, and nutrients for their cultivation.

Therefore, to solve these critical issues, researchers have explored a third and fourth generation of biofuels using microalgae and macroalgae (third generation) and metabolic engineering of photosynthetic organisms to produce biofuels (fourth generation) [5]. In this regard, algae have received considerable attention in recent years because of their robust growth and potential to accumulate a high amount of lipid, carbohydrate, and protein, and these can be easily converted into various biofuels (biodiesel, bioethanol, and biogas). Table 1 shows the potential applications of microalgal species for biodiesel production compared with other biomass sources. Besides, microalgae are the potential candidate for CO₂ sequestration, self-purification, and effective land utilization with high environmental benefits. Also, the cultivation and utilization of microalgae do not compete with food production for land, freshwater, and nutrient sources. Many studies have reported that microalgae offer a wide variety of bioproducts that can be utilized by various sectors, such as energy (biodiesel, biohydrogen, and bioethanol), pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and feed and food supplements [6]. In the past few years, a large number of research work have been focused on microalgae for the potential biofuel production.

Nevertheless, the life cycle and techno-economic analysis have revealed that the biofuels derived from microalgae are not cost-competitive in comparison with conventional petrochemical fuels. Mostly 70% of the cost will be invested for cultivation and biomass harvesting [8]. However, a possible way to reduce the cost is to integrate the microalgal cultivation system with wastewater treatment. Generally, wastewater is rich in nutrients and other bioresources. It was reported that wastewater can produce 6.5 MJ/kL of energy, which constitutes 1% of the total world energy [9].

The nutrients presenting in the form of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous can be turned into an economic opportunity by feeding them to microalgae [10]. Microalgae can utilize the organic carbon in wastewater and tailor it into biomass. The use of wastewater for microalgal cultivation in mixotrophy and heterotrophy cultivation mode can balance the respiratory losses, improve energy budget, and give a boost to the biomass productivity. Earlier reports have shown that the utilization of nutrients and water from wastewater and industrial flue gas (CO₂) helps to decrease the cost and makes the algal biofuels commercially viable [11]. In addition, the recovery of other value-added bioproducts, rare earth metals, etc. can compensate for the cost involved during algal cultivation. Besides, the wastewater used for algal cultivation does not require any additional treatment to meet the ecological and environmental regulations. Therefore, the utilization of a large quantity of wastewater for microalgal cultivation could promote waste-free, carbon-neutral, and environmentally sustainable technology.

The previous studies have explored that the microalgal species, such as Botryococcus braunii, Scenedesmus obliquus, Chlorella vulgaris, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and Nannochloropsis oculata, are recognized as promising species for biofuel production [12, 13]. Nevertheless, the biofuels produced from highly potential microalgal feedstock need a powerful downstream processing technology. This book chapter is aimed to provide knowledge about the latest research and development of microalga-based biofuel and its challenges.

2. Microalgae and growth condition

Microalgae are simple microscopic heterotrophic or autotrophic photosynthetic organisms, and these organisms are also named phytoplankton. Generally, they are found in fresh, marine, and brackish water, and they utilize photonic energy (light sources), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and water for their growth. Microalgae are classified as green algae (Chlorophyceae), blue-green algae (Cyanophyceae), red algae (Rhodophyceae), brown algae (Phaeophyceae), and diatoms (Bacillariophyceae). The microalgal growth contains five different phases: (1) lag phase, initial growth period, where the microalgae take time to adapt themselves into a new environment; (2) log/exponential phase, here rapid cell division occurs, and growth is faster; (3) decline phase, this phase contains limiting cell division; (4) stationary phase, the cell density of microalgae is stable because of the limiting factors; and (5) death phase, in this stage almost the cell growth is stopped due to lack of nutrients. Besides, microalgae are easy to be cultivated because they can tolerate a broad range of pH, salinity, and temperature. Some researchers have reported that a lipid content of microalgae is usually between 20 and 50% on a dry weight basis [14], whereas in some microalgal species (e.g., Botryococcus braunii), the lipid production can be reached up to 75% on a dry weight basis. Microalgae are not only a good source of lipids, it is also a vital source of producing the bioproducts, such as polysaccharides, pigments, proteins, vitamins, bioactive compounds, and antioxidants.

3. Current challenges in microalgal biofuels

In the present scenario, rapid population growth and extensive fossil fuel usage increase the energy demand and significant environmental-related problems, which lead to global warming. Therefore, researchers have seriously searched for an alternative and sustainable solution to overcome those issues. In this context, microalgae are considered a promising candidate for an alternative fuel source and an excellent option for cleansing the environment. The previous studies have shown that the cost of biodiesel produced from microalgae is estimated at $20.53 and $9.84 per gallon using a PBR and open raceway pond cultivation method, respectively. This shows that microalgal biodiesel is a promising avenue for sustainable energy production. From the literature survey, it is clearly noted that even though several microalgal species are available for biodiesel production, only a few algal species are considered as the best choice because of its quality and quantity of lipid accumulation. Raja et al. [32] reported that, on earth, more than 25,000 microalgal species are available; however, only a few species are in use.

At present, the utilization of microalgae as a feedstock for the production of bioenergy and bioproducts still faces a lot of limitations and challenges, and we must be addressing these issues by improving the technologies from laboratory scale to commercial scale. The most critical problems are to improve the algal biomass productivity, dewatering and biomass productivity, pretreatment and extraction, and biodiesel production. Despite several advanced technologies are available for a large-scale biomass production and lipid conversion into biodiesel, still, microalgal biodiesel is too costly since the cultivation system design requires temperature and growth limiting condition control (viz., CO₂, water sources, nutrient source, and optimization). The other most crucial obstacle is biomass dewatering because this process is energy-intensive and so costly.

Generally, in a large-scale algal cultivation, the closed PBR system is more expensive than the open raceway ponds. The PBR system also faces major operating challenges, such as overheating and fouling, due to gas exchange limitation. In microalgal cultivation, open ponds, especially mixed raceway ponds, are much cheaper to be built and operated and are easily scaled up to several hectares, which make them the right choice for commercial-scale biomass production. About 95% of commercial microalgal biomass production is performed using open raceway ponds even for high value-added bioproducts, which sell for prices over a hundred/thousand dollars. Nevertheless, the open cultivation methods meet several limitations, mainly due to contaminations by other microalgal species, algal grazers, fungi, amoeba, etc., and temperature. A literature survey revealed that though hundreds of research papers were published, still now, no proper information is available on cultivation designs, operations, yields, and other important aspects at the commercial level [33]. A major bottleneck in microalgal biofuel production is the high capital and operating costs. However, several research studies have focused on microalga-based biofuels, still, there is a vast technological gap that was found during commercialization. In a large-scale biomass production, there is a large demand for water, CO₂, nitrogen, and phosphorous, which is believed as another major hurdle. The wastewater can be utilized as a source of nutrients; nonetheless, there is a serious concern on contamination by bacteria, pathogens, and chemical compounds presenting in wastewater. Earlier studies reported that 0.16 kg of nitrogen and 0.022 kg of phosphorous are required for producing 1 liter of algal oil [34]. Besides, for producing 1-liter algal oil, the microalgae need 3.5–9.3 kg of CO₂, which implies that algae utilize a large amount of CO₂ for its growth and biomass production.

Another major challenge is algal lipid extraction prior to biodiesel production. In this part, after biomass drying, the lipid extraction using expensive solvents significantly increases the production cost. Many researchers are searching for significantly advanced technologies without drying or solvent extraction of the algal slurry in order to reduce the biomass pretreatment cost.

The biodiesel production based on current methods is expensive since it requires neat lipid feedstock, free from free fatty acids (FFA), and water. For this kind of extraction technique, the biomass must be dried; however, biomass drying is another important process, and it requires a higher cost. To reduce the FFA content of lipid feedstock, the esterification process is carried out via either acidic or enzymatic route; however, this process is still at the research stage. The esterification through the enzymatic process using lipases may be considered as the best choice because it has added advantage of running even at low temperatures. Nonetheless, the primary issue in this method is glycerol formed as a by-product, which can inhibit the lipase activity. Some researchers demonstrated that using methyl acetate, as a substrate instead of methanol, avoids glycerol formation and lipase inhibition since triacetin is generated as a by-product [35].

3.1 Microalgal biofuels and future prospects

It has been reported that the current costs in biofuel produced from microalgal biomass are approximately estimated up to 50 $/L, and thus this makes algal biofuel unsuccessful at commercial scale [36]. Nevertheless, to reduce the cost and make the algal biofuel production at commercial success, research works are still ongoing. However, the most promising and sustainable way for biofuel production is to reduce the cultivation cost, particularly growth nutrient cost. The utilization of wastewater for large-scale cultivation of algal biomass is attracted between the researchers. It is possible to grow the algae at zero nutrient cost using wastewater obtained from various sources, such as industrial, municipal, and agricultural [17]. Recent researchers are extensively investigating an integrated biorefinery concept for producing the algal biomass at zero nutrient cost; besides, it is a possible way for treating the wastewater using zero-cost technology. Some studies focused on commercial interests in a large-scale microalgal culturing using coal-fired power plants or sewage treatment facilities. This approach not only provides the raw materials for the system, such as CO₂ and nutrients; besides it also produces valuable biofuels with a cleansed environment (Figure 1). Today, the price of crude oil is lower, so the biodiesel produced from microalgae is economically uncompetitive with fossil diesel [33]. From the above study, it clearly shows that low-cost biomass production is a key issue towards the commercial production of algal biodiesel. Research efforts have been devoted to address the following problems: (1) to enhance the photosynthesis efficiency, biomass, and lipid production through genetic and metabolic engineering; (2) using high-efficient and low-cost biomass production system (open raceway pond or low-cost designed PBR); (3) cultivation mode (batch or semicontinuous); (4) utilization of wastewater and industrial flue gas in algal cultivation; (5) introducing novel microalgal harvesting methods; and (6) implementing low-cost with high-efficient oil extraction and transesterification methods (e.g., simultaneous oil extraction and transesterification, using novel heterogeneous acid catalysts, etc.).

4. Conclusion

Today, microalgae offer interesting characteristic features to qualify them as promising alternative feedstocks for various industrial and environmental applications. Nevertheless, many efforts are required to address different challenges particularly on low cost with high-efficiency biofuels, wastewater treatment, and CO₂ mitigation. Based on the research data available, it is clearly found that so far, microalgal biodiesel production is mainly stuck in a cost factor. It is clearly noticed that zero nutrient cost technology for biomass production, inexpensive large-scale harvesting, and biodiesel conversion process are yet to be improved through a detailed investigation. In this point of view, this review shows a clear outlook on algal cultivation for biofuel production and what are the challenges behind with future prospects. The production of microalgal biofuel at commercial scale can play a key role in the present global energy scenario and concern towards the related environmental issues. Researchers believe that microalgal as a third-generation candidate will be satiating the energy demand and its challenges in the future. The paramount challenges in algal biodiesel production are cultivation and harvesting techniques, and the limitations with an emphasis on the cost factor are discussed. Therefore, establishing a new and innovative biorefinery-based low-cost technology should be developed to overcome these problems. Recently, the microalga-based biorefinery is the emerging technology, which is aiming to address the above severe issues and make the algal biofuels sustainable and alternative. Besides, it helps wastewater treatment at zero-cost technology, CO₂ mitigation, and attractive value-added bioproducts. These economic processes could be improved by adapting various cost-cutting activities, such as utilizing wastewater and industrial flue gas as nutrient and carbon sources, respectively. Finally, the microalga-based biorefinery process seems to be the most feasible approach in the forthcoming years to compete with fossil fuels and to develop a sustainable and renewable bioenergy source.