Every time we fill the tank of our car we are aware of the importance of fuels in our way of life. But his influence goes beyond our comfort and our independence and have global effects. In fact our dependence on fossil fuels affects the global economy and helping to increase daily emissions of greenhouse gases. But are there alternatives?

The electric car, associated with the use of renewable energy is a promising bet for the near future and hybrids (plug-in or not) can speed the transition. But What about trucks and tractors? What about airplanes? Is there a plan B? The response we give to these questions in the coming years is unknown, but may not be unique and will undoubtedly go for the use of some alternative fuel that is more respectful of the environment.

First generation biofuels seem to have lost the game after the recent distortions that have been introduced in food markets, along with his involvement in deforestation and loss of tropical biodiversity. But there are alternatives that can be solved, at least in part, some of the problems generated by competition between food and bioenergy products. In this context, microalgae appear to have all the signs of its part: as a best estimate it could generate up to 50,000 L of oil per hectare per year compared to 5000 produced by the palm of aceite1, which is the culture that currently produces the largest oil yield, while threatening the jungle of Borneo. As a result of this higher performance extension of arable land can be reduced in equal measure, and the fact that you can use marginal lands will help to avoid direct competition with traditional agriculture. Furthermore, its oil content can be above 70% on dry basis, but is generally around 30% .

2 In addition, these microorganisms grow in salt or brackish water, so in principle, its influence on the stress water is minimal. Then one wonders why not use algae-based fuels and? A simple answer would be that the price per liter of biodiesel derived from algae is far from being competitive, it is estimated it would cost not less than 2 € / L. But there are many technological and commercial aspects ranging from species selection, and in aspects of bioengineering, which would be worth examining in depth. To this end IMDEA Energy (www.energia.imdea.org) in collaboration with the Escuela de Organización Industrial (EOI) (www.eoi.es) held last April 8 a conference entitled “Microalgae A green source of oil? “international experts in both industry and the scientific field provided an updated view of this topic.

Pierpaolo Cazzola of the International Energy Agency looked at the return of energy and life cycle of biofuels from microalgae and highlighted the significant impact that the use of fertilizer and drying of biomass is in these estimates. Professor Miguel García Guerrero of the Joint University and the CSIC Sevilla, recalled the taxonomic differences between microalgae and cyanobacteria themselves, and spoke of the advances in genetic engineering of these microorganisms to maximize the production of carbohydrates for conversion into ethanol. Antonio Fernandez said Biomar Institute’s efforts to get your company in the most appropriate species of microalgae for biofuel production taking advantage of the enormous natural biodiversity and selecting the most interesting strains obtained from expeditions around the globe.

Emilio Molina Professor, University of Almeria described his experience to set up an experimental greenhouse for cultivating microalgae in tubular reactors and produce biodiesel transterificación pilot scale. On the other hand, Professor René Wijffels Wageningen University (Netherlands) highlighted the importance of considering the overall utilization of microalgae biomass for bioenergy products not only forward but also pharmaceutical substances or food to increasing the profitability of the process, since according to their estimates would be possible to achieve a market value of 1.65 € / kg of biomass produced. Finally, Repsol YPF Spy Henry said his company’s bid for the development of biological reactors simple and inexpensive approach to enable this technology to commercial viability.

In summary, arguably the expectations of microalgae as a source of biofuels with lower environmental impacts are very high, but there are still significant technological and economic challenges that need to be resolved before we can find these products on our station.

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