Macroalgae for biofuels production: Progress and perspectives

Algae is a very promising source for renewable energy production since it can fix the greenhouse gas (CO2) by photosynthesis and does not compete with the production of food. Compared to microalgae, researches on biofuel production from macroalgae in both academia and industry are at infancy for economically efficient and technological solutions. This review provides up to-date knowledge and information on macroalgae-based biofuels, such as biogas, bioethanol, biodiesel and bio-oils respectively obtained from anaerobic digestion, fermentation, transesterification, liquefaction and pyrolysis technique methods. It is concluded that bioethanol and bio-oils from wet macroalgae are more competitive while biodiesel production seems less attractive compared to high lipid content microalgae biomass. Finally, a biorefinery concept based on macroalgae is given.