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Review
. 2019 Aug 7;8(8):851.
doi: 10.3390/cells8080851.

Factors Affecting Microalgae Production for Biofuels and the Potentials of Chemometric Methods in Assessing and Optimizing Productivity

Mutah Musa  1 , Godwin A Ayoko  2 , Andrew Ward  3   4 , Christine Rösch  5 , Richard J Brown  6 , Thomas J Rainey  7
Affiliations
Review

Factors Affecting Microalgae Production for Biofuels and the Potentials of Chemometric Methods in Assessing and Optimizing Productivity

Mutah Musa et al. Cells. .

Abstract

Microalgae are swift replicating photosynthetic microorganisms with several applications for food, chemicals, medicine and fuel. Microalgae have been identified to be suitable for biofuels production, due to their high lipid contents. Microalgae-based biofuels have the potential to meet the increasing energy demands and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the present state of technology does not economically support sustainable large-scale production. The biofuel production process comprises the upstream and downstream processing phases, with several uncertainties involved. This review examines the various production and processing stages, and considers the use of chemometric methods in identifying and understanding relationships from measured study parameters via statistical methods, across microalgae production stages. This approach enables collection of relevant information for system performance assessment. The principal benefit of such analysis is the identification of the key contributing factors, useful for decision makers to improve system design, operation and process economics. Chemometrics proffers options for time saving in data analysis, as well as efficient process optimization, which could be relevant for the continuous growth of the microalgae industry.

Keywords: biofuels; biorefinery; chemometrics; lipids; microalgae; multivariate analysis; pattern recognition; process optimization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Uses and products of microalgae.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total global primary energy demand by source (others includes wind, solar and geothermal energy) [11].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Main features of biomass energy technology.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Stepwise energy loss during photosynthesis.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Fuel products derivable from microalgae.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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