Techniques of Improving Microalgae in Biomass Clean Energy: A Short Review

Abstract

Microalgae have been considered as a reliable feedstock for biodiesel production and regarded as the promising alternative source to replace petroleum-based fuels. Production of biofuel derived from microalgae undergoes several processes, including cultivation, harvesting, extraction and biofuel conversion. However, recovery of intracellular content is time-consuming and difficult process as the biodegradability of microalgae is strictly hindered by the rigid nature of the cell wall. Hence, pretreatment of microalgae becomes an inevitable process to facilitate cell wall disruption and liberation of organic cell contents for the biofuel production. This paper aims to review and compare the various pretreatment methods (mechanical and non-mechanical) of microalgae with respect of their strength and limitation.