Production of bioethanol from macroalgae, a candidate for sustainable fuels produ ction: Challenges and opportunities

Global warming, water and food scarcity and increasing trend in fuel consumption are main reasons to consider the marine and ocean as a huge resource for producing foo d, feed, fertilizer and feedstock for fuel. This lead us to develop sustainable energy resources with minimal environmental side effects, low dependency on lands and fresh water requirements and certainly, economic consideratio ns. Marine macroalgae biomass has the potential to be an important feedstock for the pro duction of renewable biofuel. The carbohydrate-rich seaweed shows great promise as a c ompetitive feedstock for the production of bio ethanol. According to latest statistics, the glo bal total seaweed yield is 30.14 MT FW, where China (47%) is the biggest macroalgal bio mass producers (FAO 2016). It is estimated tha t, if this volume totally, convert to bioethanol, it would cover only 3.2% of the China fuel demand. Currently the annual fuel consumpti on is nearly 125× 1012 MWh (Bjerregaard et al. 2016). To minimize the environmental side effects of supplying of such massive demand with other sustainable energy resources, a co mprehensive analysis is a must. Thus, in th is work, challenges and opportunities in macroalgal cultivation and utilization is reviewed. In addition, the technological aspects, present worldwide efforts towards maximising the bioethonol production from seaweeds and future perspectives have been highlighted.

Global warming, water and food scarcity and increasing trend in fuel consumption are main reasons to consider the marine and ocean as a huge resource for producing foo d, feed, fertilizer and feedstock for fuel. This lead us to develop sustainable energy resources with minimal environmental side effects, low dependency on lands and fresh water requirements and certainly, economic consideratio ns. Marine macroalgae biomass has the potential to be an important feedstock for the pro duction of renewable biofuel. The carbohydrate-rich seaweed shows great promise as a c ompetitive feedstock for the production of bio ethanol. According to latest statistics, the glo bal total seaweed yield is 30.14 MT FW, where China (47%) is the biggest macroalgal bio mass producers (FAO 2016). It is estimated tha t, if this volume totally, convert to bioethanol, it would cover only 3.2% of the China fuel demand. Currently the annual fuel consumpti on is nearly 125× 1012 MWh (Bjerregaard et al. 2016). To minimize the environmental side effects of supplying of such massive demand with other sustainable energy resources, a co mprehensive analysis is a must. Thus, in th is work, challenges and opportunities in macroalgal cultivation and utilization is reviewed. In addition, the technological aspects, present worldwide efforts towards maximising the bioethonol production from seaweeds and future perspectives have been highlighted.