Prospects of using microalgae for biofuels production: Results of a Delphi study

Advanced biofuels, such as those obtained from microalgae, are widely accepted as better choices forachieving goals of incorporating renewables and non-food fuel sources into the transportation sector,and for overcoming land use issues due to biofuel crops. Main challenges are currently the feasibility oflarge-scale commercialization of microalgae biofuels, since there are still some technical problems toovercome (e.g. the high energy consumption associated with biomass processing) and the majority ofeconomic and financial analyses are based on pilot-scale projects. Therefore, this article presents theresults of a Delphi study aiming to identify the main obstacles and most critical issues affecting thepotential of large-scale commercialization of microalgae biodiesel and its incorporation into the fuelmarket. According to the authors' knowledge, this is the first Delphi study with this objective. The respondents are worldwide market specialists in the survey themes that ranged from biofuels economicsto their environmental sustainability. One of the key findings is that most of the experts believe thatproduction of microalgae biofuels will achieve its full commercial scale until 2020, and that from 2021 till2030 it could represent from 1% to 5% of the worldwide fuel consumption. The study results also showedthat environmental issues are where expert opinion differs more