Biofuels from algae: technology options, energy balance and GHG emissions

During the last decades, algae received increasing interest as potential source of advanced biofuels production resulting in a considerable attention from research, industry and policy makers. We report on the current-status of technology options for the potential exploitation of algae (of both macroand microalgae species) in the biofuels and bioenergy sectors. We presents a comprehensive review of recent advances on promising algal biofuel production pathways, in terms of technological development, opportunities and limitations to their overall effectiveness. Furthermore, we analyse the main assumptions, modelling approaches and results of the algal biofuel pathways, in terms of energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions balances, considered in the LCA literature. A comparison of the performance associated to the proposed algal biofuels pathways with that found for conventional fossil fuels is also reported.