DOI 10.1007/s10295-008-0495-6ORIGINAL PAPER Microalgae as a raw material for biofuels production

Abstract Biofuels demand is unquestionable in order to reduce gaseous emissions (fossil CO2, nitrogen and sulfur oxides) and their purported greenhouse, climatic changes and global warming eVects, to face the frequent oil supply crises, as a way to help non-fossil fuel producer countries to reduce energy dependence, contributing to security of sup-ply, promoting environmental sustainability and meeting the EU target of at least of 10 % biofuels in the transport sector by 2020. Biodiesel is usually produced from oleagi-nous crops, such as rapeseed, soybean, sunXower and palm. However, the use of microalgae can be a suitable alterna-tive feedstock for next generation biofuels because certain species contain high amounts of oil, which could be extracted, processed and reWned into transportation fuels, using currently available technology; they have fast growt