9

Algal Biofuel: A Sustainable Green

Energy
Laxuman Sharma1 and Akhilesh Kumar Singh2*
1Department

of Horticulture, Sikkim University, 6th Mile, Gangtok 737102,

India.
2Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh Lucknow
Campus 226028, India.
*E-mail: aksingh2@lko.amity.edu

Abstract

Modern world is experiencing energy insecurity because of extreme

population pressure and depleting energy resources. Fossil fuels though have
highly applauded for contributing to todays development, are non renewable
energy and debated for not sustainable. This has posed serious challenges
to the scientific fraternity for finding the suitable alternatives. A cheap, ecofriendly, sustainable or renewable type of energy is visualized for development
with added advantage of mitigating green house gases. Biofuel produced
from different feedstock has been researched, trialed and commercialized
with many advantages and disadvantages. Biofuel production from the oil
producing crops like maize, soyabean, jatropha etc. growing in arable land
are not considered ideal because it is not climate neutral and pose competition
for food production. Biofuel production using non-food feedstock as wood
processing residues, forest residues, agricultural residues and non-edible
constituents of beet, sugarcane, corn etc., which do not directly involved in
competition with human food chain, are also not feasible owing to requirement
of costly and sophisticated technologies. Biofuel production using algal
biomass as feedstock has attracted the researchers and policy makers having
several advantages of rapid growth rate, high space efficiency, high
productivity, sulphur free fuel, non toxic and biodegradability. Several strains
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Research on Biotechnology in India: Some Initiatives and Accomplishments

of algal species like Scenedesmus sp, Scenedesmus obliquus, Chlorella

vulgaris, Chlamydomonas sp, Chlorococcum littorale etc. are reported
to produce high biomass with high lipid content, making them ideal candidate
for biodiesel production. Bioethanol production from species like Spirogyra,
Chlorococcum humicola and Chlorococcum infusionum have also been
reported. In addition to the production of the oil, these species have high
CO2 sequestration ability and can be used for waste water treatment. Despite
constant efforts for producing biofuels from microalgae, the economic
production is still questionable. The cutting edge technology for improving
cultivation techniques, growing methods, species selection and bio-engineering
are still to be applied holistically for cost effective production and
commercialization of algal biofuel in near future, as algal fuel is only
alternative to the fossil fuels.
Key words: Algae, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Bioethanol, Biofuel, Biogas
Introduction

The rapid civilization and ever expanding economy have posed

mammoth scale energy demand worldwide. Fossil fuels, produced from
carbon reserves of millions of years has now been debated for being non
renewable and its increased used has threatened closed carbon cycle.
Burning of fossils fuels is tremendously contributing to increased green house
gases and climate change. The sustenance of environment, economy and
the pace of development can only be achieved by shifting to the renewable
source of energy. An alternative energy now sought for exploitation of
biological agents to transform source of energy, such as sunlight and biomass,
into fuels such as biodiesel, bioethanol etc. Biomass referred to entire cellular
dry weight or organic substances manufactured by an organism generally
from sunlight in conjugation with carbon dioxide. Biologically synthesized
fuels or solid, liquid or gaseous fuels derived from organic matter are typically
termed as biofuels. Now, biofuel have received much attention as alternative
green renewable energy over conventional fossil fuel owing to severe
environmental concerns, increasing crude oil price, apprehension about energy
security and diminishing non-renewable fossil fuels reserves (Chhetri et al.
2008). Interestingly, biofuels are categorically a green renewable energy of
the choice with positive characteristics viz. biodegradability, nontoxicity and
lower releases of greenhouse gases. Currently, the exploitation of liquid
biofuels viz. biodiesel, bioethanol and jet fuel has been intensified enormously
particularly in the transport sector (Tabatabaei et al. 2011).

Algal Biofuel: A Sustainable Green Energy

Biofuels and their categories

207

Biofuels have evolved into an innovative area of research globally.

These are broadly classified into three categories: (i) Natural biofuels, (ii)
Primary biofuels and (iii) Secondary biofuels (Table 1). The natural biofuels
are usually manufactured from organic sources, such as landfill gas, animal
waste and vegetables. Primary biofuels involve fuel-woods, which are
exploited primarily for heating, cooking, electricity production or brick furnace.
On the other hand, the secondary biofuels composed of biodiesel and
bioethanol that are manufactured by processing of biomass (Nigam and
Singh 2011). Based on features viz. feedstock, processing technology and/
or development levels, the secondary biofuels are further categorized into
three sub-classes, i.e. first, second and third generation biofuels (Table 1,
Dragone et al. 2010). The first generation biofuels (bioethanol), which
predominantly manufactured from food crops including oil seeds are
restricted in their capability to attain their goals for biofuel synthesis owing
to alarming socio-economic consequences (competition of biodiesel
feedstock with food commodities), climate change mitigation and requirement
of more arable agricultural lands (Chhetri et al. 2008; Alam et.al. 2010).
These issues have intensified the attention towards manufacturing/ producing
second generation biofuels by exploiting non-food feedstocks such as wood
processing residues (e.g. saw dust), forest harvesting residues, agricultural
residues (wood chips, straws, sheared branches, leaves etc.) and non-edible
constituents of beet, sugarcane, corn etc., which do not directly involved in
competition with human food chain (Alam et al. 2010). However, the
productions of second generation biofuels are not feasible owing to
requirement of costly and sophisticated technologies including special
enzymes (Lee et al. 2014; Espinosa-Gonzalez et al. 2014). Land based
higher plants are also seen as alternative biofuels, but they are debated for
not being climate neutral and potentially compete with net food production
(Scharfemann and Larance 2008).
Overcoming the shortfalls of first and second generation, the third
generation biofuels offers pronounced feasibility (Dragone et al. 2010; Nigam
and Singh 2011; Brennan and Owendue 2010; Li et al. 2008). It is anticipated
that the feasibility towards biodiesel synthesis by exploiting microalgae is 15
to 300 times greater compared to conventional/ traditional crops on area
basis (Dragone et al. 2010). Apart from this, microalgae have a very short
harvesting cycle over conventional crop plants that facilitate continuous or