Assessment of a dry and a wet route for the production of biofuels from microalgae: Energy balance analysis

► Energy balance of the whole chain from microalgae growing to biofuels production. ► Comparison of two chains: one via drying of the algae, and one via wet extraction. ► In the dry route the energy requirement of the drying step is crucial. ► In the wet route the energy requirement of the oil extraction is crucial. ► The wet route is challenging and promising because of the high-quality of biofuels.