A review on potential enzymatic reaction for biofuel production from algae

• Main Authors: Noraini, M.Y., Ong, Hwai Chyuan, Mohamed Jan, Badrul, Chong, W.T.
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier 2014
• Subjects: T Technology (General); TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/11905/; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114005413; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.089

Increasing number of population, advanced technology and economics growth somehow has caused energy depletion. The development of biofuel such as biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas is extremely needed to overcome these crises. Biofuel is derived from biological sources or biomass which are more environmental friendly, less toxic, reduce greenhouse gas emission and less cost. Algae comes from the third generation product of both biodiesel and bioethanol. Algae based biofuel has various advantages such as non-toxic, does not require fresh water to grow, higher growth rate, biodegradable and not used arable land. Thus, this review summarizes enzymatic reaction for production of all biofuels; biodiesel and bioethanol. The enzymatic reaction is safe, less contaminating and seems to produce higher yield of biofuel compared to chemical reaction. Overall finding of this study suggests that immobilization method and efficiency of the enzyme is the main factor in biofuel production. Finally, further studies are recommended to overcome the major constraint of high enzyme cost by improving the immobilization technique and processes.