Ecofriendly Approach for Bioethanol
Production from Microalgae
Pandian Prabakaran, Virumandi Pradeepa, Nagasundaram Rashiya,
Sundaram Ravikumar, Sathiamoorthi Thangavelu,
and Gopal Selvakumar
Abstract Cultivation of microalgae biomass for bioethanol production appeared
as one of the potential solution to drive green and sustainable fuel production.
Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganism that can grow rapidly compared to the
terrestrial plants and able to accumulate high content of carbohydrate within their
cells. The carbohydrate is usually stored in the form of starch, which is easier to breakdown to simple reducing sugar than lignocellulosic biomass. In the present chapter,
the process route to produce bioethanol from microalgae biomass is discussed,
including the cultivation strategies to enhance microalgae carbohydrate productivity,
biomass pre-treatment methods, hydrolysis and fermentation process.
Keywords Microalgae · Bioethanol · Carbohydrate · Renewable energy · Fuel
1 Introduction
As reviewed from 2014, the global energy demand was increasing with a slower
rate than in 2013 (1.1% vs. 2.5%), which recorded a world total primary energy
supply (in megatonnes oil equivalent, Mtoe) of 13,700 Mtoe (IEA 2016). Figure 1
illustrated the distribution of Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) according to
different energy sources (Fig. 1a), in which 13.8% or 1894 Mtoe was contributed
by renewable energy (Fig. 1b) in the year of 2014 (IEA 2016). Figure 1a shows that
fossil fuels remained to be the largest energy consumption, which in turn resulted
to the increment of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission to the atmosphere. Thus,
utilization of renewable energy is encouraged to fulfill the requirement of COP21
P. Prabakaran · S. Ravikumar · G. Selvakumar
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India
V. Pradeepa · G. Selvakumar
Department of Zoology, Seethalakshmi Achi College for Women, Pallathur, India
N. Rashiya · S. Thangavelu · G. Selvakumar (B)
Department of Microbiology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India
e-mail: gselvakumar75@gmail.com; skumarg@alagappauniversity.ac.in
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Prashanthi et al. (eds.), Bioremediation and Green Technologies, Environmental
Science and Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64122-1_21
301
Production from Microalgae
Pandian Prabakaran, Virumandi Pradeepa, Nagasundaram Rashiya,
Sundaram Ravikumar, Sathiamoorthi Thangavelu,
and Gopal Selvakumar
Abstract Cultivation of microalgae biomass for bioethanol production appeared
as one of the potential solution to drive green and sustainable fuel production.
Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganism that can grow rapidly compared to the
terrestrial plants and able to accumulate high content of carbohydrate within their
cells. The carbohydrate is usually stored in the form of starch, which is easier to breakdown to simple reducing sugar than lignocellulosic biomass. In the present chapter,
the process route to produce bioethanol from microalgae biomass is discussed,
including the cultivation strategies to enhance microalgae carbohydrate productivity,
biomass pre-treatment methods, hydrolysis and fermentation process.
Keywords Microalgae · Bioethanol · Carbohydrate · Renewable energy · Fuel
1 Introduction
As reviewed from 2014, the global energy demand was increasing with a slower
rate than in 2013 (1.1% vs. 2.5%), which recorded a world total primary energy
supply (in megatonnes oil equivalent, Mtoe) of 13,700 Mtoe (IEA 2016). Figure 1
illustrated the distribution of Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) according to
different energy sources (Fig. 1a), in which 13.8% or 1894 Mtoe was contributed
by renewable energy (Fig. 1b) in the year of 2014 (IEA 2016). Figure 1a shows that
fossil fuels remained to be the largest energy consumption, which in turn resulted
to the increment of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission to the atmosphere. Thus,
utilization of renewable energy is encouraged to fulfill the requirement of COP21
P. Prabakaran · S. Ravikumar · G. Selvakumar
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India
V. Pradeepa · G. Selvakumar
Department of Zoology, Seethalakshmi Achi College for Women, Pallathur, India
N. Rashiya · S. Thangavelu · G. Selvakumar (B)
Department of Microbiology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India
e-mail: gselvakumar75@gmail.com; skumarg@alagappauniversity.ac.in
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Prashanthi et al. (eds.), Bioremediation and Green Technologies, Environmental
Science and Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64122-1_21
301