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Bioethanol production from microalgae polysaccharides

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Abstract

The worldwide growing demand for energy permanently increases the pressure on industrial and scientific community to introduce new alternative biofuels on the global energy market. Besides the leading role of biodiesel and biogas, bioethanol receives more and more attention as first- and second-generation biofuel in the sustainable energy industry. Lately, microalgae (green algae and cyanobacteria) biomass has also remarkable potential as a feedstock for the third-generation biofuel production due to their high lipid and carbohydrate content. The third-generation bioethanol production technology can be divided into three major processing ways: (i) fermentation of pre-treated microalgae biomass, (ii) dark fermentation of reserved carbohydrates and (iii) direct “photo-fermentation” from carbon dioxide to bioethanol using light energy. All three technologies provide possible solutions, but from a practical point of view, traditional fermentation technology from microalgae biomass receives currently the most attention. This study mainly focusses on the latest advances in traditional fermentation processes including the steps of enhanced carbohydrate accumulation, biomass pre-treatment, starch and glycogen downstream processing and various fermentation approaches.

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Notes

  1. According to applied phycology, these represent microscopic, unicellular, filamentous or colonial prokaryotic cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae that are capable of converting inorganic nutrients, water, carbon dioxide and light energy (sunlight) into biomass via photosynthesis.

Abbreviations

Acetyl-CoA:

Acetyl coenzyme A

ADHI, ADHII:

Alcohol dehydrogenase I and II

ATP:

Adenosine triphosphate

CBP:

Consolidated bioprocess

CCM:

Carbon dioxide concentrating mechanism

DW:

Dry mass

GRAS:

Generally recognized as safe

PBRs:

Photobioreactors

PDC:

Pyruvate decarboxylase

PHB:

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

PSI, II:

Photosystem I, II

RuBisCO:

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate

SHF:

Separate hydrolysis and fermentation

SSF:

Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation

NaHCO3 :

Sodium bicarbonate

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ms. Soňa Pekařová for the technical assistance and Dr. Kateřina Bišová for the discussion.

Author contribution statement

Gergely Lakatos took the leading role in the writing of the manuscript. Karolína Ranglová, Jiří Kopecký, Tomáš Grivalský and João Câmara Manoel contributed during the manuscript preparation. Jiří Masojídek revised and finalized the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded partly by the National Sustainability Program of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (project Algatech Plus LO1416), and by cross-border InterReg projects between Austria and the Czech Republic (Algenetics No. ATCZ15) and Bavaria and the Czech Republic (CZ-BAV 41).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Algatech, Laboratory of Algal Biotechnology, Institute of Microbiology, Třeboň, Czech Republic

    Gergely Ernő Lakatos, Karolína Ranglová, João Câmara Manoel, Tomáš Grivalský, Jiří Kopecký & Jiří Masojídek

  2. Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Karolína Ranglová

  3. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    João Câmara Manoel & Jiří Masojídek

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  1. Gergely Ernő Lakatos
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Correspondence to Gergely Ernő Lakatos.

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Dedicated to the memory of Prof. Ivan Šetlík.

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Lakatos, G.E., Ranglová, K., Manoel, J.C. et al. Bioethanol production from microalgae polysaccharides. Folia Microbiol 64, 627–644 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-019-00732-0

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