Breakthroughs in bioalcohol production from microalgae

Bioalcohols (mainly bioethanol) are considered as one of the most promising substitutes for fossil fuels. Several feedstocks have been evaluated as substrates for bioethanol production and among them, microalgae have particularly emerged during the past years. This is due to their rapid growth, lack of competition with crops, the integration of production with wastewater treatment, and the fact that carbohydrates can be accumulated by manipulating cultivation conditions. Carbohydrates occur in microalgae as reserve products and as part of the cell wall. They can be converted into fermentable sugars through hydrolysis. For this reason, this chapter is focused on the study of the carbohydrates in microalgae biomass and methods to improve their accumulation as well as diverse pretreatments to break the cell wall, their release as monomeric sugars, and a comparison of the fermentation processes.