Toward the lowest energy consumption and emission in biofuel production: combination of ideal reactors and robust hosts

•Strategies to reduce energy consumption in biofuel production were summarized.•Energy-efficient bioreactors are important for the commercialization of biofuels.•Biofuel reactor relies on robust microbial factories maximize the energy efficiency.

Rising feedstock costs, low crude oil prices, and other macroeconomic factors have threatened biofuel fermentation industries. Energy-efficient reactors, which provide controllable and stable biological environment, are important for the large-scale production of renewable and sustainable biofuels, and their optimization focus on the reduction of energy consumption and waste gas emission. The bioreactors could either be aerobic or anaerobic, and photobioreactors were developed for the culture of algae or microalgae. Due to the cost of producing large-volume bioreactors, various modeling strategies were developed for bioreactor design. The achievement of ideal biofuel reactor relies on not only the breakthrough of reactor design, but also the creation of super microbial factories with highest productivity and metabolic pathway flux.

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