**6.1 Will algal biomass production ever be economically viable?**

Though microalgae technologies have evolved tremendously in the past decade and have shown greater promise as renewable feedstocks for food, fuel and other high value products, their commercial scale production is still in its infancy. Companies like Sapphire Energy, Aurora Biofuels, Solazyme, and Algenol started with the aim of producing biofuel from algae at a large scale but could not sustain their operations due to economic infeasibility. Some companies have stopped the operations, while others changed their focus to produce algae for food or other nonfuel products. Considering the technoeconomic analysis of fuel production from

microalgae, production of algae for food, nutraceutical, cosmetics etc. has higher chances of success, as these products provide lot of opportunities to innovate and higher value of these compounds in comparison to fuel can fetch higher returns on investments. However, it must be noted that the market for these products is either substantially small or still in early stages of evolution. Moreover, availability of several cheap alternatives and lack of awareness among people about algae products are also critical stumbling blocks in market acceptability of algal products.

To bring microalgae production into mainstream both cost and market awareness must be improved. Integrated biorefinery approaches, discussed in detail in previous section, can be a viable option in this direction if technological and financial challenges are overcome. For that, focused research in both fundamental and applied areas to bridge the gap between lab to field translatability is imperative. Understanding biology for high biomass production and tweaking production strains through mutation, genetic and metabolic engineering approaches to increase the efficiency of accumulating desirable products and building the capability to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses would be a step towards success of commercial scale algal biomass production. In parallel, optimization of unit operations in cultivation, harvesting and downstream processing by improving their efficiency, lowering cost and finally integrating biological and engineering systems to ultimately develop economically viable end-to-end process is crucial for success. Lastly, government support in terms of well-defined policy, setting clear renewable energy targets, funding and subsidies on environmentally sustainable technologies would be a strong push in making algal biomass production at commercial scale a reality.

#### **6.2 Next generation systems**

It is clear from the discussion above that substantial improvements are needed in multiple processes of algal biomass production. Next generation systems should focus on improving pond design and better hydrodynamics, which can enhance fluid mixing and minimize dead zones resulting in improved biomass productivity, reduction in contaminant growth and pond crashes. Pond design should also support improved light and dark cycle leading to better light utilization, thus enhancing biomass productivity. Cost reduction through innovative low-cost pond lining is another important focus area for next generation systems. Development of efficient and inexpensive CO2 delivery systems, where CO2 wastage can also be minimized is an area of active research and such novel delivery methods should be part of next generation systems. Harvesting incurs significant cost to the algal biomass production, hence, combining two or more harvesting strategies and identifying coagulation, flocculation and dewatering chemical recipes that also can work effectively under saline conditions for microscopic algae will add in improving economics of biomass production. Strain modification and developing robust strains should also be the focus area of next generation systems. One example is propiconazole resistant *Chlorella* strain developed through mutagenesis, also harbors trait of high temperature tolerance. These two traits make the strain apt for cultivation in outdoor conditions [165].

#### **6.3 Biological carbon capture and sequestration**

There is growing recognition that the greatest existential threat facing the planet is anthropomorphic climate change. There is growing evidence that reductions in carbon emissions may not be sufficient to push global temperatures beyond a tipping point that would lead to an inhabitable planet for much of life as we know it today. Perhaps the greatest irony is that the geological sequestration of microalgal

**475**

**Author details**

Meghna Rajvanshi1

**Acknowledgements**

and Richard Sayre2

carbon and address the looming specter of climate change.

opportunity and support in the preparation of this chapter.

Richard Sayre acknowledges financial support from the New Mexico Consortium to write this article. Meghna Rajvanshi acknowledges Dr. Santanu Dasgupta and Dr. Ajit Sapre from Reliance Industries Ltd., India for providing the

\*Address all correspondence to: rsayre@newmexicoconsortium.org

1 Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, India

2 New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, USA

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Recent Advances in Algal Biomass Production DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94218*

biocrudes may be one of the most efficient and sustainable means to sequester atmospheric carbon [35, 166, 167]. Instead of extracting non-renewable petroleum (ancient algal biomass) from the earth it may become necessary to sequester atmospheric carbon by returning algal biocrude to the earth perhaps through the same pumps and wells that were used to extract petroleum. Carbon capture by algae is sustainable given efficient recycling of water and nutrients. The major concern is public inertia to mitigate carbon and economics. The costs associated with algal biocrude or carbon sequestration may be attractive. The economics of algal biocrude sequestration can be offset in part by the co-production of high volume/ low value animal feeds (proteins and carbohydrates) and the production of high value commodities minimizing the need for governmental financial support of atmospheric carbon mitigation technologies. To date, an algal BCCS system linked with food and valuable coproduct production has not been modeled for carbon capture efficiency and costs. The challenge for the next generation of algal scientists and economists is to consider whether algal BCCS is a workable solution to mitigate atmospheric

#### *Recent Advances in Algal Biomass Production DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94218*

*Biotechnological Applications of Biomass*

**6.2 Next generation systems**

outdoor conditions [165].

**6.3 Biological carbon capture and sequestration**

microalgae, production of algae for food, nutraceutical, cosmetics etc. has higher chances of success, as these products provide lot of opportunities to innovate and higher value of these compounds in comparison to fuel can fetch higher returns on investments. However, it must be noted that the market for these products is either substantially small or still in early stages of evolution. Moreover, availability of several cheap alternatives and lack of awareness among people about algae products

To bring microalgae production into mainstream both cost and market awareness must be improved. Integrated biorefinery approaches, discussed in detail in previous section, can be a viable option in this direction if technological and financial challenges are overcome. For that, focused research in both fundamental and applied areas to bridge the gap between lab to field translatability is imperative. Understanding biology for high biomass production and tweaking production strains through mutation, genetic and metabolic engineering approaches to increase the efficiency of accumulating desirable products and building the capability to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses would be a step towards success of commercial scale algal biomass production. In parallel, optimization of unit operations in cultivation, harvesting and downstream processing by improving their efficiency, lowering cost and finally integrating biological and engineering systems to ultimately develop economically viable end-to-end process is crucial for success. Lastly, government support in terms of well-defined policy, setting clear renewable energy targets, funding and subsidies on environmentally sustainable technologies would be a strong push in making algal biomass production at commercial scale a reality.

It is clear from the discussion above that substantial improvements are needed in multiple processes of algal biomass production. Next generation systems should focus on improving pond design and better hydrodynamics, which can enhance fluid mixing and minimize dead zones resulting in improved biomass productivity, reduction in contaminant growth and pond crashes. Pond design should also support improved light and dark cycle leading to better light utilization, thus enhancing biomass productivity. Cost reduction through innovative low-cost pond lining is another important focus area for next generation systems. Development of efficient and inexpensive CO2 delivery systems, where CO2 wastage can also be minimized is an area of active research and such novel delivery methods should be part of next generation systems. Harvesting incurs significant cost to the algal biomass production, hence, combining two or more harvesting strategies and identifying coagulation, flocculation and dewatering chemical recipes that also can work effectively under saline conditions for microscopic algae will add in improving economics of biomass production. Strain modification and developing robust strains should also be the focus area of next generation systems. One example is propiconazole resistant *Chlorella* strain developed through mutagenesis, also harbors trait of high temperature tolerance. These two traits make the strain apt for cultivation in

There is growing recognition that the greatest existential threat facing the planet

is anthropomorphic climate change. There is growing evidence that reductions in carbon emissions may not be sufficient to push global temperatures beyond a tipping point that would lead to an inhabitable planet for much of life as we know it today. Perhaps the greatest irony is that the geological sequestration of microalgal

are also critical stumbling blocks in market acceptability of algal products.

**474**

biocrudes may be one of the most efficient and sustainable means to sequester atmospheric carbon [35, 166, 167]. Instead of extracting non-renewable petroleum (ancient algal biomass) from the earth it may become necessary to sequester atmospheric carbon by returning algal biocrude to the earth perhaps through the same pumps and wells that were used to extract petroleum. Carbon capture by algae is sustainable given efficient recycling of water and nutrients. The major concern is public inertia to mitigate carbon and economics. The costs associated with algal biocrude or carbon sequestration may be attractive. The economics of algal biocrude sequestration can be offset in part by the co-production of high volume/ low value animal feeds (proteins and carbohydrates) and the production of high value commodities minimizing the need for governmental financial support of atmospheric carbon mitigation technologies. To date, an algal BCCS system linked with food and valuable coproduct production has not been modeled for carbon capture efficiency and costs. The challenge for the next generation of algal scientists and economists is to consider whether algal BCCS is a workable solution to mitigate atmospheric carbon and address the looming specter of climate change.
