ISSN 2456-0235

International Journal of Modern Science and Technology

INDEXED IN 

​​​​​​​​​​​​April 2018, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp 72-82. 

​​Marine Algae – Future Source of Biofuels

G. Baskar*, I. Abarna Ebenezer Selvakumari, R. Aiswarya
Department of Biotechnology, St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, Chennai – 600 119. India.
​​​*Corresponding author’s e-mail: basg2004@gmail.com

​Abstract

​The current scenario of world’s energy crisis made us to understand the fact that world’s fossil fuel resources are in peril of exhaustion and prices are reaching historical heights. Thus, the quest for alternative renewable fuel is gaining attention in global scale. The idea of biofuel is a green alternative liquid fuel technology that would lead to a decrease in dependence on petroleum based fuel in the automobile sector and decreases the atmospheric contamination produced by pollutant gas emissions. Thus biofuel can be used as the basis for a clean substitute for petrol-diesel without any modification and are non-toxic and biodegradable. The sustainable production of the alternative renewable fuel energy is being debated globally and it was increasingly understood that the first generation biofuels are primarily produced from food crops and oil seeds. Because of these concerns the search for new generation biofuel feedstock gained increased interest and so a keen focus was given on non-food and non-terrestrial sources and this leads to the development of second and third generation bio fuels. Among third generation biofuel marine algae has been considered recently as a promising biomass feedstock with great potential for biofuel production because they are existing in large amount and found all over the world. Marine algae reproduces themselves every few days, yield oil exceeding 10x the yield of the best oilseed crops, reduce emissions of a major greenhouse gases with enhanced carbon dioxide fixation. In this current review paper we highlighted the critical overview of using Marine algae as a future source of biofuel.

Keywords: Energy crisis; Biofuel; Biomass feedstock; Marine algae; Carbon dioxide fixation.

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