Algal biorefinery-based industry: an approach to address fuel and food insecurity for a carbon-smart world

Abstract

Food and fuel production are intricately interconnected. In a carbon-smart society, it is imperative to produce both food and fuel sustainably. Integration of the emerging biorefinery concept with other industries can bring many environmental deliverables while mitigating several sustainability-related issues with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel usage, land use change for fuel production and future food insufficiency. A new biorefinery-based integrated industrial ecology encompasses the different value chain of products, coproducts, and services from the biorefinery industries. This paper discusses a framework to integrate the algal biofuel-based biorefinery, a booming biofuel sector, with other industries such as livestock, lignocellulosic and aquaculture. Using the USA as an example, this paper also illustrates the benefits associated with sustainable production of fuel and food. Policy and regulatory initiatives for synergistic development of the algal biofuel sector with other industries can bring many sustainable solutions for the future existence of mankind.

Chemical composition and nutritional properties of freshwater and marine microalgal biomass cultured in photobioreactors

“…Therefore, a more in-depth examination of various algal species, beyond growth rate and lipid production, is necessary. At least in the near to mid-term, the animal feed and aquaculture sectors appear to be the most promising areas to focus for generating revenues (Pulz and Gross 2004;Brune et al 2009;Stephens et al 2010;Subhadra and Grinson 2011;Ahmed et al 2012). Depending on species, environmental conditions, nutrient supply, and harvesting/processing techniques, whole biomass and residual "cake" after oil extraction may be highly attractive sources of protein, essential amino acids, and other nutrients for terrestrial livestock and aquatic animals.…”

Biochemical characterization of microalgal biomass from freshwater species isolated in Alberta, Canada for animal feed applications

“…Although algal oil for thirdgeneration biodiesel production has been the subject of much research and a major driver for technological innovations in recent years, by all assessments it is not economically viable [3][4][5]. Utilization of the entire algal crop through a balanced biorefinery approach that effectively maintains the quality of various fractions has the potential to reduce the processing costs of each product and is likely the only feasible strategy to increase the viability of a microalgae industry [6][7][8][9]. At least in the near to mid-term, the livestock and aquaculture feed sectors appear to be among the most promising areas to focus for generating revenues [10,11].…”

Biochemical composition and amino acid profiles of Nannochloropsis granulata algal biomass before and after supercritical fluid CO2 extraction at two processing temperatures

“…This value is similar to other conventional plant-based oil sources presently used such as soybean, palm, canola and sunflower at $0.6-1.0 kg −1 (Indexmundi, 2015). In fact, Subhadra and Grinson (2011) and Demirbas and Demirbas (2011) have estimated that feedstock algal oil must be priced at $0.40-0.48 L −1 in order to be competitive with conventional crude oil. Despite technological advances, however, the estimated cost of production of algae-based oil remains extraordinarily high ($450-2300/bbl USD; Kightlinger et al, 2014) relative to non-renewable fossil-based crude oil ($80-100/bbl USD).…”