About this Research Topic
Increased global warming and depleting fossil reserves have paved way for the development of new age energy feedstock for the sustainable bio-refinery. Development of sustainable bio-refinery needs feedstock available throughout the year without disturbing the land for food crops. Microalgae are such excellent photoautotrophic feedstock capable of fast growth by sequestering atmospheric CO 2 and converting into biomass. The process is thought to be carbon negative fixing the global warming issues and the biomass obtained can be utilized either as food or for the development of industrially important chemicals or fuels.
Oils obtained from algal feedstock are predominantly rich in triacylglycerols (TAGs) and could be easily converted into biodiesel via transesterification. Apart from the oil and carbohydrates which are dominant in microalgae, there are various biomolecules like vitamins, pigments which are of prime importance for food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. There is a need to understand what drives the production of such industrially important chemicals or fuels to improve the sustainability of the process. Integrative omics is a robust technique to understand the entire system and develop microalgae as microbial cell factories. The algal physiological and biochemical responses towards various environmental/ genetic factors would lead us to the better model for the production of biorenewables. The systematic studies focusing on optimization of microalgal systems and new omics approach for the discovery of potential bioproduct discovery is required.
The research topic on B3 Algae: Biomass, Biofuels, and Biorenewables would provide the opportunity for the researchers in the field to demonstrate their expertise. The emphasis would be made on the novel innovative processes and technologies in the sustainable development of microalgae as a feedstock for biofuels and other renewables of prime importance. We are looking for all the areas of algal research pertaining to algal biology, cultivation, and bioprocessing techniques to develop some industrially important products like fuels, nutraceuticals etc.
Oils obtained from algal feedstock are predominantly rich in triacylglycerols (TAGs) and could be easily converted into biodiesel via transesterification. Apart from the oil and carbohydrates which are dominant in microalgae, there are various biomolecules like vitamins, pigments which are of prime importance for food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. There is a need to understand what drives the production of such industrially important chemicals or fuels to improve the sustainability of the process. Integrative omics is a robust technique to understand the entire system and develop microalgae as microbial cell factories. The algal physiological and biochemical responses towards various environmental/ genetic factors would lead us to the better model for the production of biorenewables. The systematic studies focusing on optimization of microalgal systems and new omics approach for the discovery of potential bioproduct discovery is required.
The research topic on B3 Algae: Biomass, Biofuels, and Biorenewables would provide the opportunity for the researchers in the field to demonstrate their expertise. The emphasis would be made on the novel innovative processes and technologies in the sustainable development of microalgae as a feedstock for biofuels and other renewables of prime importance. We are looking for all the areas of algal research pertaining to algal biology, cultivation, and bioprocessing techniques to develop some industrially important products like fuels, nutraceuticals etc.
Keywords: Microalgae, high value products, biofuels, lipids, productivity
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