Earlier this week, an article regarding the recent progress of bioethanol production from seaweeds appeared on the Trends in Renewable Energy (vol. 1, pp. 185-197. doi:10.17737/tre.2015.1.3.0016). The researchers at the Zhengzhou University recommended macroalgae (seaweeds) as a promising source for bioethanol production.
“The importance of using bioethanol as a vehicle fuel is increasing domestic energy production, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, and preventing environmental pollutions… As the development of fuels from biomass continues apace, the consumption of edible crops and sugars has raised food security, morality, and ethics issues.” said Professor Chen. Further she pointed out that marine macroalgae offer many advantages over terrestrial plants, like no competing for land, high productivity, low input, etc.
The estimated mass from cultivated macroalgae is six orders of magnitude greater than that of lignocellulosic biomass, implying that macroalgae could supply sufficient feedstocks for bioethanol production. Because chemical compositions of macroalgae are significantly different from terrestrial plants, it requires developing new processes for converting them into ethanol.
The article overviewed the pretreatment technologies that are suitable for seaweeds, enzyme usage, and fermentation efficacy. Typical examples including red, brown and green macroalgae were further elaborated. Finally, the authors summarized that “Although, the notion of macroalgae-based bioethanol production is environmentally better than the fossil fuels, but still suffer from low cost effectiveness and technological barriers. The industrial-scale technologies for seaweed conversion still require significant basic research and development.”
Contact: Dr. Hongliang Li, Email: lihongliang@zzu.edu.cn; Dr. Chun Chang, Email: chunchang@zzu.edu.cn
More information: http://futureenergysp.com/index.php/tre/article/view/16
