Biotechnological
Communication
Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 9(4): 729-736 (2016)
Sustainable biomass production from microalgae for
food, feed and biofuels: An integrated approach
Ruma Arora Soni
1
, K. Sudhakar
2
* and R. S. Rana
3
1
Energy Centre, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,
2
Mechanical Engineering Department, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal (M.P),
462051, India
ABSTRACT
Microalgae hold assurance for the sustainable substitution of fossil fuels due to its high growth rates, ability to grow
on non-arable land and biochemical compositions that can be easily converted to fuels using existing technology.
The three major macromolecular components that can be extracted from microalgal biomass are lipids, carbohy-
drates, and proteins. These chemical components can be converted into a variety of fuel options such as alcohols,
diesel, methane, and hydrogen. Open ponds and photobioreactors are used as standalone production systems or in
combination as a two-stage process in the production of algal biomass. A novel method of plastic bag technology
can be adopted for reducing investment and the production cost of microalgae. In the present work an integrated
approach of micro-algae cultivation is proposed to ultimately address the sustainable production and environmental
issues .The state-of-the-art of algal production for food, feed and biofuels is presented with emphasis on sustainable
and economical approaches. The various sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance lipid and protein yields are
listed. The optimum proportions of organic nutrients required for microalgae growth to is also presented. This inte-
grated and economically viable approach of microalgae production has the potential to save India from malnutrition
and fuel scarcity.
KEY WORDS: MICROALGAE, SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION,
SPIRULINA
, OPEN POND, PHOTOBIOREACTORS, PLASTIC BAGS
729
ARTICLE INFORMATION:
*Corresponding Author: sudhakar.i@manit.ac.in
Received 26
th
Nov, 2016
Accepted after revision 27
th
Dec, 2016
BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455
Online ISSN: 2321-4007
Thomson Reuters ISI ESC and Crossref Indexed Journal
NAAS Journal Score 2015: 3.48 Cosmos IF : 4.006
© A Society of Science and Nature Publication, 2016. All rights
reserved.
Online Contents Available at: http//www.bbrc.in/
INTRODUCTION
The global energy demand is expanding with rapid pop-
ulation growth. Almost 1.4 billion people of our planet
face daily shortage of energy. Estimate shows that the
world would require 50% more energy in 2030 than it
does today. Although feeding the biofuel production
residues to animals presently is an economically viable
and may also results in balancing the energy and envi-
ronmental cost of feed production, but it may not be a
730 AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE SPIRULINA PRODUCTION BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Ruma Arora, Sudhakar and Rana
perfect solution if biofuels are to replace the majority of
the liquid fuel used today. Initial evaluation of microal-
gae as the potential source for biofuel production began
in 1970, but it was temporarily waived due to techni-
cal and economic issues. Later on, subsequent studies
from 1980 onwards showed high potential in microal-
gae biofuel production, (Ugwu et al 2008, Komerath and
Komerath 2011, Huo et al 2012 and Sani et al 2013).
Microalgae nd its major application in producing
lipid based fuels as biodiesel. Their growth rate and dou-
bling time is high as compared to plants, and their cell
walls are rich in protein rather than cellulose, in com-
parison with terrestrial plants. Moreover, releasing pro-
tein from algal biomass may be an easier bioconversion
process rather than breaking down lignocellulosic plant
matter to fermentable sugars. Despite these potential
advantages, economic analyses have suggested that any
highly engineered process for cultivating microalgae and
producing commodities such as diesel or jet fuels results
in very expensive products in the present scenario. New
integrated cultivation techniques have been introduced
for better mixing ef ciency, cost effective materials of
enclosed photobioreactor (Jonathan 2011, Naqqiuddin et
al 2014, Jiang et al 2016).
There is a strong potential for co-production of
energy and high-value added compounds from algae,
but the present productivity or availability of the latter is
much too low to achieve so as to achieve an substantial
volume of biofuel co-production. The only advantage
of microalgae production in photobioreactor for pro-
ducing pure microalgae as compared to other systems
other than cost, complicated designs and dif culties in
maintenance making it at disadvantage. Therefore, algal
productivity in bulk-volume is needed for a large-scale
co-production or integrated concept. The possibility of
co-producing food and fuel, self-suf ciency, combating
malnutrition and hunger, reducing the negative health
effects of using traditional biomass sources for cooking
and heating can be other advantages. Traditional culti-
vation systems such as open ponds and photobioreactors
have inherent drawbacks. Though open pond system has
been used for long time, the major drawback is the low
productivity and contamination. Hybrid or integrated
cultivation system may bring out some positive and
improved results. There is big time to ful ll or accom-
modate the global demands for biofuels. An emphasis
should be laid on improving the quality, scope, depth,
and translation of research.
CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND
BIOFUEL PRODUCTION
Till date, researches on developing advanced technolo-
gies in microalgae cultivation systems have been con-
tributive especially for enclosed photobioreactors. Most
photobioreactor are land based designed, with some
drawbacks as sophistically complicated, dif culties in
maintenance, high initial cost, expensive preservation,
and normally reserved to culture high value microalgae.
To a certain extent of open systems, culture purity might
decline distress after few generations of algae cultiva-
tion cycle (Medipally 2015).
Different climatic factors may in uence the growth
and productivity of microalgae. Waste-grown algae
have widely varying lipid contents, and the technolo-
gies for lipid extraction are still under development.
Excessive or extreme agitation or aeration could affect
the growth of microalgae cell particularly for Spirulina.
Bubbles arising during aeration could break the long
chained lament of Spirulina cells into short though it
promotes other microalgae species to grow inside the
photobioreactors. Spirulina have considerable potential
for development as a small scale crop for nutritional
enhancement, livelihood development along with envi-
ronmental mitigation. To ensure water environment
and water ecology security, designing of green water-
shed with low emissions, high self-puri cation ability,
ecosystem healthy, and excellent service functions is
required, (Abdel-Raouf 2012 and Liu et al 2016).
An adequate energy supply has been identi ed as a
key prerequisite for economic, cultural and social devel-
opment in complex societies. For sustainable food pro-
duction, plastic bag technology integrated with open
pond and green house can be implemented. Microalgae
are the most promising next-generation biomass feed-
stock. Conventional production systems did not result
in cost-effective cultivation of microalgae. Issues were
high contamination risk, very low biomass production,
high capital expenditures and increasingly high opera-
tional costs. These can be overcome by bringing out new
technologies.
Though the cultivation of algae using manmade or
natural open pond system was initially simple, turning it
into a viable feedstock has always been problematic. So
there is a need for a system that could enable higher pro-
duction levels, lower capital and operating costs, greater
biomass concentration, better environmental control,
and above all, industrial scalability.
To make a difference when it comes to renewable
energy or byproducts made from microalgae, cost effec-
tiveness is a major role to be bring about in concern.
For producing microalgae feedstock, it should be further
re ned in order to get biofuels or biochemical. Many
experiments and research is in process for biofuels and
chemical industries along with agricultural industries for
producing high value added products and proteins. Table
1 shows the comparison between different cultivation
system and validates that plastic bag technology can be
BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE SPIRULINA PRODUCTION 731
Ruma Arora, Sudhakar and Rana
• Its production is done with considerable ef cien-
cies in terms of water, land use and energy con-
sumption when compared to traditional terrestrial
crops;
• Its production is highly suitable to saline and alka-
line water conditions that are often unfavourable
to traditional crops and are frequently occupied
by disadvantaged people suffering from natural
disasters;
• The production of algae is simple and easy which
can be easily cultivated from household “pot cul-
ture” to intensive commercial development over
large areas. Table 2 summarizes the nutritional
components of different microalgae species.
Among these spirulina is having maximum pro-
tein content and chlorella vulgaris is having maxi-
mum lipid content.
Advancing a strategy for sustainable development
of biofuels that meets concerns for availability, cost
effectiveness, green house gas reductions, food com-
petition, and ecosystem protection will be a knowledge
intensive activity. Very little is going into research on
agricultural and natural resource systems needed to sus-
tainability “scale -up” a signi cant biofuel production
system, into the limits of sustainable expansion, or into
the ways that biofuel production interacts with the envi-
ronment at global, regional and local scales, (Lee et al
2008). Biofuels have a limited ability to replace fossil
fuels and should not be regarded as a ‘silver bullet’ to
deal with transport emissions. Biofuels cannot support a
sustainable transport system on their own so it must be
developed as part of an integrated approach. Emphasis is
needed in the development of hybrid and fuel cell vehi-
cles, public transport, and better town and rural plan-
ning, (Mohr et al 2015, Sudhakar and Premalatha 2015;
Hassan 2016).
Globally - every year an equivalent of over 11 billion
tonnes of oil is consumed. Crude oil reserves are vanish-
ing at the rate of 4 billion tonnes a year – At this rate
of consumption without any increase for our growing
population or aspirations, the known oil deposits will
be exhausted by 2052. We’ll still have gas left, and coal
too. But if we increase gas production to ll the energy
FIGURE 1. Shows the plastic bag technology for
cultivation of microalgae which could be eco-
nomically bene cial.
Table 1: Comparison of open pond, PBR and
Plastic Bag techniques for algae cultivation.
Open
Pond
PBR Plastic Bag
Technology
Water Media(tons) 100 100 100
Area Requirement
(m
2
)
250 250 1200
Daily Production
(Kg Dry Weight)
35 35 60
Areal Productivity
(Kg/m
2
/day)
0.14 0.14 0.05
more bene cial in terms of daily productivity (Rao et al
2014; Arto et al 2016 and Soni et al 2016).
The energy history and pro le of a country is a major
factor to consider in assessing their current and future
journey towards a sustainable energy path, particularly
for developing countries. Spirulina has a high nutritional
value and micronutrients which can be used as healthy
food, animal feed, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals.
It is considered as an excellent food, with minimal or
no toxicity and having immunitive properties against
viral attacks, anaemia, and especially malnutrition. It
has been reported as animal and sh food supplements,
(Soha and Nour 2013 and Edomah 2016)
Spirulina seems to have considerable potential for
development, especially as a small-scale crop for nutri-
tional enhancement, livelihood development especially
for women, children and environmental mitigation. In
particular, the sustainable production and consumption
of spirulina has the following advantages:
• It provides an easily digestible protein product
with high levels of -carotene, vitamin B12, iron
and trace minerals and the rare essential fatty acid
-linolenic acid (GLA).
• It’s healthy for human consumption with no nega-
tive effects.
Table 2: Comparison of microalgal species
Species Proteins Carbohydrates Lipids
Spirulina maxima 60-71 13-16 6-7
Spirulina plantesis 46-63 8-14 4-9
Scenedesmus
obliquus
50-56 10-17 12-14
Chlorella vulgaris 51-58 12-17 14-22
Spirogyra sp. 6-20 33-64 11-21
732 AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE SPIRULINA PRODUCTION BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Ruma Arora, Sudhakar and Rana
gap left by oil, then those reserves will only give us an
additional eight years, taking us to 2060. But the rate at
which the world consumes fossil fuels is not standing
still, it is increasing as the world’s population increases
and as living standards rise in parts of the world that
until recently had consumed very little energy. Fossil
Fuels will therefore run out earlier.
It’s often claimed that we have enough coal to last
hundreds of years. But if we step up production to ll the
gap left through depleting our oil and gas reserves, the
coal deposits we know about will only give us enough
energy to take us as far as 2088. And let’s not even think
of the carbon dioxide emissions from burning all that
coal, (Piyushi 2014).
Out of the world’s twenty largest oil elds, sixteen
have already reached their peak level of production,
whilst the discovery of oil eld discovery was nearly
50 years ago (CIA Factbook, 2010). Biofuels have the
potential to be a useful element of the overall approach
to the issues of climate change and energy supply. While
improvements can be made in the environmental per-
formance of the existing supply of biofuels, many of the
technologies and production systems are at early stages
of conception and development.
CONCEPT OF INTEGRATED FOOD AND BIOFUEL
PRODUCTION
Current biore nery schemes are suboptimal for sev-
eral reasons such as reduced ef ciencies or high cost.
Microalgae do not compete for land with crops used for
food production, fodder and other products (Huang et al,
FIGURE 2. SFossil fuel reserves with time (CIA Factbook, 2010).
Table 3: Comparison of different sources of biofuels, summarizing the different biofuel sources
Country Biofuel
Source
Impact Boundaries Oil Yield (Lt/
oil/ha)
Land Use
(m
2
/GJ)
Energy
(GJ/ha)
Water Required
(m
3
/GJ)
Argentina Soyabean Use of non-renewable
energy sources, GHG
emissions (CO
2
),
hydrocarbons (HC), CO,
particulate matter (PM),
NOx, SOx
446 689 15 383
Brazil/India Rapeseed GHG emmisions 1190 258 39 383
Malaysia Palm Oil GHG emmisions 5906 52 192 75
India Jatropha Use of non-renewable
energy GHG emissions
(CO
2
, CH
4
, N
2
O)
Pollutants (SO
2
, NOx,
NH
3
, HCI, NOx, NH
3
,
POCP) Ozone
1896 162 62 396
U.S Microalgae Utilises CO
2
from
atmosphere through
photosynthesis
24355-136886 2-13 793-4457 <379
BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE SPIRULINA PRODUCTION 733
Ruma Arora, Sudhakar and Rana
2010). Microalgae can be grown on farms or in bioreac-
tors, or in plastic bags. The most common microalgae
have oil levels in the range of 20 to 50% by weight
of dry biomass, but still higher productivities can be
attained through research (Mata et al, 2010). Microal-
gae have the doubling time of 24hrs which is one of
their greatest advantages in terms of productivity Firstly,
algae have limited ef ciency because cultures used for
biofuel production must be starved so that they produce
lipid feedstocks, resulting in less cell growth and less
total CO
2
xation. The growth of algae requires CO
2
as
one of its main nutrients. There is an opportunity to
sequester CO
2
by using ue gas emissions from indus-
trial sources as the feed for algae cultivation (Ahmad et
al, 2011; Sudhakar and Premalatha, 2012; Rinanti et al
2014, Arita et al 2015, Cheah et al 2015 and Sharon et
al 2016)
• Secondly, sugar-based or cellulosic biore ning,
lead to the accumulation of protein by-products,
but there are no such strategies to convert these
by-products into lipids and then to liquid fuels.
These protein by-products are now mainly used
as animal feed. But despite the current pro tabil-
ity of animal feed, the feed market has a limited
ability to absorb the increasing protein by-prod-
ucts from the fast-expanding biore nery indus-
try (Sani et al 2013). Thirdly the main concern is
the accumulation of the reduced nitrogen which
increases the green house gas emission leading to
more destruction than carbon dioxide (Jonathan,
2011). Moreover, the unused or lost reduced nitro-
gen must be reintegrated by enriching future crops
with reduced fertilizer nitrogen, which is being
produced by the environmentally unfriendly and
energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. Re-tracing
the potential of Spirulina to ful ll both their own
food security needs as well as a tool for their over-
seas development and emergency response efforts.
Integrated food and energy systems are designed to
integrate, intensify, and thus increase the produc-
tivity of food and energy simultaneously through
sustainable land management. The intensi ca-
tion of speci c productions of energy and other
coproducts such as food, feed and biochemicals is
achieved in two ways. Carbon dioxide (CO
2
) emis-
sions are a particular problem and an attempt to
reduce atmospheric CO
2
concentration is inevitable
worldwide. (Raoof et al 2006, USEPA 2014, Mickey
et al 2016)
• Multiple resource use through the diversi cation
of land use and productivity, i.e. by combining
the production of food and fuel feedstock on the
same land, through mixed cropping and or some
advance techniques.
• Multiple resource use and full utilization of prod-
ucts and byproducts or the residues, i.e. multiple
products which may be derived from a crop or
from livestock. By feeding the by-products of one
production stream into the next line of production,
waste is reduced or eliminated. This leads to low-
or zero-waste systems.
The rationale and concept of the Integrated production
schemes are elaborated below
1. Economic viability and Environmental sustainability
The relationship between energy consumption and eco-
nomic growth, as well as economic growth and envi-
ronmental pollution, has been one of the most widely
investigated topics in the economic literature during
the three last decades. Microalgae biofuel production is
commercially feasible because it is cost competitive with
fossil based fuels, does not require extra lands, improves
the air quality by absorbing atmospheric CO
2
, and uti-
lizes nominal water. However, microalgae biofuels have
some limitations such as low biomass productivity, low
lipid content in the cells, and small size of the cells that
makes cultivation and harvesting process highly priced.
These drawbacks can be overcome by improving the
technologies for harvesting and drying and by genetic
engineering of metabolic pathways for high growth rate
and doubling time and increased lipid content.
FIGURE 3. Integrated approach of food, feed and biofuel
production from Spirulina species.
Ruma Arora, Sudhakar and Rana
734 AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE SPIRULINA PRODUCTION BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Conversion of algae to biofuels circumvents many
problems presented by land based crops, but also pre-
sents its own challenges. Firstly, photosynthetic microbes
produce negligible levels of cellulosic polysaccharides.
The dif cult task of degrading lignocellulose does not
exist and will not limit overall energy ef ciency. Sec-
ondly, photoautotrophic organisms may be grown in
plastic lined ponds which reduce environmental runoff
from unused fertilizer. An analogous setup cannot be
established for terrestrial crops. Thirdly, photosynthetic
microbes x carbon at a much higher rate than terres-
trial plants. The fastest carbon xation rate measured in
an algae pond was 40 g/m
2
/day , while that of terrestrial
plants has not risen above 1 g/m
2
/day (Huo et al, 2012) .
Rise in algal biodiesel scale will expand the global nitro-
gen unevenness with further protein-rich by-product
creation. (Emeish 2013; Singh et al 2011; Roy et al 2013;
Ali et al 2014; Lee 2016)
Algal productivity has a strong in uence on the eco-
nomics of the process, as it determines how much prod-
uct the cultivation system produces. If the market price
of the product is known, the money available for pro-
ducing the algae and extracting the products can be cal-
culated. Realistic estimates for dry microalgal biomass
yield may vary from 40 to 80 tons per year per hectare
depending on the technology used and the location,
despite common claims of higher yields, (Gallagher et al
2011, Nagarajan et al 2013, Sani et al, 2013, Soha and
Nour 2013, Brownbridge et al 2014, Sghari et al 2016).
The location of the production system is of major nota-
bility for the economics, as it determines the costs of land,
labour, CO
2
, nutrients supply and other factors that have
a major impact on the process. By assessing the vitality
of algae projects from a market perspective, it is clear that
total installation, operation and maintenance costs will
be a major obstacle to future commercialization but tech-
nologies are being developed to further reduce costs and
increase yields. Table 3 shows the advantages of adapting
plastic bag technology with different parameters.
Although the upcoming innovative technologies
are a long way from commercialization, it opens up a
new pathway for producing higher carbon alcohol fuels
while offering a co-product for conventional biomass
biore neries. It may also stimulate development of sus-
tainable algal systems for protein production. Currently
it is too expensive to be commercialized. The long term
potential of this technology can be improved by the fol-
lowing approaches. Economical growth technologies of
oil – rich as well as protein rich algae which can contrib-
ute to food supplement, should be developed. Integrated
concept for food and biofuel concept should be adopted.
Enhancing algal biology by genetic modi cations and
metabolic engineering leads to great impact on improv-
ing the economics of microalgal production. Inter-
national organizations working with Spirulina algae
should prepare a practical guide to small scale Spirulina
production that could be used as a basis for extension
and development methodologies.
This small-scale production should be orientated
towards:
(i) Providing Spirulina products as nutritional
supplements in rural and urban communities
especially for women and children where the
staple diet is poor or inadequate;
(ii) Instead of growing variety of traditional crops,
more emphasis should be laid on monitoring
Spirulina production and its different products.
(iii) To develop clear guidelines on food safety and
toxicity aspects of Spirulina production and
processing.
(iv) Production of Spirulina for human consump-
tion should speci cally take into account the
potential risks of contamination of Spirulina
with toxin producing blue-green algae.
(v) Culture should be encouraged only in con-
trolled ponds or photobioreactors or in plastic
bags where single cell culture is feasible.
CONCLUSION
Biofuel development is facing urgency due to the ris-
ing challenges of climate change and carbon balance
accounting concepts as carbon footprints. The technol-
ogy for cultivating, harvesting and processing of algal
biomass should be customized, standardized, simpli ed
and economized. Theoretically, microalgae have been
a potential source to produce biofuels because of their
many pros as a sustainable feedstock for biofuel pro-
duction; however their production needs more research
to identify the most suitable microalgae species and
improve their oil yield as well there use as food supple-
ment. Based on the overview presented, the search for
bene cial microalgae sources should focus on appro-
priate strain for food and biofuel production with-
Table 4: Comparison of different parameters with algae
cultivation systems
Parameter Relative Advantage
Capital / Operating Costs Plastic Bags< Open Ponds<<PBRs
Biomass Concentration Plastic Bags< Open Ponds<PBRs
Oxygen Inhibition Open Ponds> PBRs~ Plastic Bags
Contamination risk Open Ponds> PBRs~ Plastic Bags
Water losses Open Ponds> Plastic Bags> PBRs
Carbon dioxide losses Open Ponds~ Plastic Bags~ PBRs
Space Required Open Ponds~ PBRs< Plastic Bags
Ruma Arora, Sudhakar and Rana
BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE SPIRULINA PRODUCTION 735
out much impact on land-use and water consumption.
There is a need for more research on the biosynthesis of
algal lipids, especially triglycerides and fatty acids. The
algae having major portion of proteins can also be con-
verted and further used for biofuel production. No other
potential sources of biofuels compete to microalgae in
being realistic sustainable production for food, feed and
biofuels.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are very thankful to Ex-Director, Dr. K. K. Appu-
kuttan, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology
Bhopal, India for his continued support and guidance to
complete this research work.
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