A review on economical and impact of bioethanol production from microalgae: Current scenario and future prospect

Fossil fuel is one of the most important sources of energy that have been powering economies for last 150 years. However, the combustion of these fossil fuels is the primary cause of emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, which contributes to the warming of the planet and enhances greenhouse effect. In order to mitigate the negative effects of fossil fuels, biofuel is promoted as the most effective and environment friendly alternative to fossil fuels. Among the existing feedstocks diatoms and other microalgae have proved to be the most abundant source of existing crude oil from the previous studies and existing literatures. However, an important alternative for fuel from microalgae biomass, is its conversion into bioethanol which is currently the most demanding alternatives to fossil fuels replacing gasolines and aromatic hydrocarbons. However, the scaleup production of bioethanol using microalgae is challenging due to low yields, and high cost. It is crucial to discuss economic aspects, and innovations needed to overcome these shortcomings. Chemical free technologies such as pulsed electric fields (PEF), or induction of biosynthesized nanoparticles as pretreatment methods and economic cultivations like bubble farming and microalgae in microbial fuel cells could enhance the yields, and lower the cost. Wet biomass processing also plays a critical role in cost-effective bioethanol production from microalgae. The present study will channel the research in bioethanol production using microalgae through sustainable approaches such as PEF and biosynthesized nanoparticles that can be improved and used for up scaling the bioethanol production.