Biofuels from Microalgae

Microalgae are a promising feedstock for sustaineble production of biofuela due to their unique capacity to reach high lipid productivities. Although the promises are there, production costs and energy requirements are high and the technology is still ammature for the production of bulk products. It is an enormous challange to transfer technology so far used for production of high-value niche products to a technology to be used at industrial scale for commodities. A new mind-set is needed and knowledge needs to be gained in different scientific disciplines, intergrated, applied, and demontrated in an industrial context. Biofuels from microalgae can only become realistic if the cost of production of algae is reduced, if the produntivity of lipids in microalgae is maximized, and if besides lipids, other compounds are validated for applications for food, feed, chemistry, and materials using a microalgal biorefinery.