Biodiesel production from ocean biomass

In order to face the frequent oil crises and reduce environmental impact of fuels, many industrialized countries have been carrying out substantial research to keep the energy source supply safer and decrease CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. For example, in the transport sector bio-ethanol has been introduced, mainly derived from sugar cane, together with biodiesel, produced from rapeseed, maize, soybean, etc. However, some researchers believe that biofuel production cannot satisfy world fuel demand because of the reduction of the land for food use due to energy crops. For this reason, at the end of the 1970’s, a new process was introduced to obtain biofuels from ocean biomass. The microalgae, indeed, are characterized by a high content of fat substances (up to 50% of their dry weight), high yield and easy crop growing. Furthermore, the by-product, derived from the oil extraction, can be used as fertilizer or feed. However, as yet no market production has been started, even if the technologies have already been developed. This paper intends to analyse the different technologies available so far, in order to produce biodiesel from algae and highlight the potentialities and the difficulties of the production process.