Biodiesel from algae: challenges and prospects.

Micro-algal Technology for Sustainable Energy Production: State of the Art

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel currently derived from vegetable oils and animal fats. One of the limiting factors for the growth of the biodiesel market is the availability and price of feedstock. Feedstock for biodiesel has to compete with the food crops for land and water. Hence, alternative feedstock’s that are not also food crops need to be found. One such renewable energy sources are microa...

Recent Development of Biodiesel Feedstocks and the Applications of Glycerol: A Review

Biodiesel, as renewable and biological origin alternative diesel fuel, has been receiving a lot of concern throughout the world due to the energy needs and environmental awareness. However, at present, it is not economically feasible to use food-grade vegetable oils to produce biodiesel because of the surge in feedstocks price. Much attention has been devoted to the application of lower-cost fe...

Biodiesel Feedstock and Production Technologies: Successes, Challenges and Prospects

Life Cycle Analysis on Fossil Energy Ratio of Algal Biodiesel: Effects of Nitrogen Deficiency and Oil Extraction Technology

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely used to analyze various pathways of biofuel preparation from "cradle to grave." Effects of nitrogen supply for algae cultivation and technology of algal oil extraction on life cycle fossil energy ratio of biodiesel are assessed in this study. Life cycle fossil energy ratio of Chlorella vulgaris based biodiesel is improved by growing algae under nitrog...

Microbial and algal oils: Do they have a future for biodiesel or as commodity oils?

We review the prospects of using yeasts and microalgae as sources of cheap oils that could be used for biodiesel. We conclude that yeast oils, the cheapest of the oils producible by heterotrophic microorganisms, are too expensive to be viable alternatives to the major commodity plant oils. Algal oils are similarly unlikely to be economic; the cheapest form of cultivation is in open ponds which ...