Situation Analysis of Biodiesel Technologies from Algal Biomass

Biodiesel is one of the most promising solutions for addressing the energy crisis since it can mitigate the majority of environmental issues. It provides a new scope to fuel supply source replacement of fossil fuel and decreases greenhouse gas emissions. Microalgae, the third-generation feedstock for biodiesel, are regarded as one of the most environmentally friendly options. Large-scale algal biodiesel production is still limited by several obstacles; the main of them is the large water footprint used in algae cultivation or for the process utilities. The strain selection and the stress cultivation conditions should have priority in the process design to acquire increasing biomass productivity with a high portion of lipid accumulation. This book discusses in detail the technologies used in biodiesel production considering the cost and energy consumption as key challenges, and navigation through the worldwide status of biodiesel production from microalgae.