Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Microalgae and Industrial Wastes: A Critical and Bibliometric Review

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Microalgae are photosynthetic organisms able to grow faster than land plants and produce biomass with relatively high energy potential. Accumulated high-value compounds like lipids, minerals, or proteins have focused the attention of scientists due to the potential production of biofuels and other value-added products. However, several drawbacks regarding both the biochemical structure of these organisms and technological difficulties have prevented the industry for implementing a comprehensive low-cost process regarding energy and environmental contamination. Among these technologies, anaerobic digestion (AD) has greatly increased research attention because of its simplicity and the ability to produce easily recycle by-products. Moreover, anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) has shown promising results as a method to bypass the AD problems of microalgae as a sole substrate. This review is focused on the recent trends and comparison of the AcoD process to maximize energy recovery from microalgae biomass and agro-industrial wastes. The yield of methane gas among the studied bibliography is compared and a critical review of published data and methods used is included.
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the regional government of Andalucía, Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades (Project FEDER UPO-1380782) and to the Spanish national R&D plan (PID2020-114975RB-100/AEI/10.13039/5011000/11033) for providing financial support.