Biotechnology for Zero Waste – Emerging Waste Management Techniques (Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain (editor) etc.)

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Application of Sustainable Micro-Algal Species in the

Production of Bioenergy for Environmental Sustainability

Senthilkumar Kandasamy¹, Jayabharathi Jayabalan¹, and Balaji Dhandapani²

1Kongu Engineering College, Department of Chemical Engineering, Erode, 638060, Tamilnadu, India

2Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Chennai, 603110,

Tamilnadu, India

20.1

Introduction

Biomass is one of the most promising resources available to satisfy our increasing

energy demand. Biomass is renewable and is an organic material which can be

used to synthesize heat, electricity, and transportation fuels. Biomass feedstocks

are resources that can be used directly as fuel or can also be transferred to energy

products to satisfy various domestic and industrial needs. There are various biomass

feedstocks including agricultural crop residues, algae, forest and wood residues,

municipal and urban organic waste, food waste, etc. Agricultural residues like stalks

and leaves can be effectively used for bioenergy production without interfering

with food production. These may generate additional income to farmers. Forest

biomass feedstocks including branches, tree parts, etc., are used for the production

of bioenergy without affecting forest ecosystem as well as its essential functions.

Feedstocks of algae constitute productive organisms like microalgae, macroalgae,

and cyanobacteria. They utilize sunlight and nutrients to produce biomass which

can be transferred to biofuels. Based on the type of strain, algae may grow on fresh,

saline, or brackish water. They also grow in treated industrial, municipal, agricul-

tural, or aquaculture wastewater, etc. Bioenergy can also be produced from sorted

municipal wastes including commercial and residential garbages like papers, plas-

tics, leather, rubber, textiles, food wastes, and textiles. Use of sorted municipal wastes

for bioenergy production significantly reduces residential and commercial wastes.

20.1.1

Classiﬁcation of Biofuels

Biofuels that have emerged adding to/replacing fossil fuels are brought under

three categories. The biofuels are classified as shown in Figure 20.1. Usual biofuels

obtained from natural resources and use vegetable, creature waste, and landfill

gas. Besides, other biofuels are fuel woods intended for the most part for cooking,

warming, block furnace, or power creation. The biofuels produced from edible plant

Biotechnology for Zero Waste: Emerging Waste Management Techniques, First Edition.

Edited by Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain and Ravi Kumar Kadeppagari.