earticle

영어

Production of biofuels from renewable biomass has received a lot of interests due to instability in petroleum oil supply and global warming. Currently, biofuels are produced predominantly from food crops such as corn and sugarcane in the case of ethanol, and palm oil and soybean in the
case of biodiesel. Using food crops for the production of biofuels has caused a controversy of "fuel versus food". Due to the abundance and sustainability of feedstocks, a lot of research efforts are placed on commercializing the production of biofuels from terrestrial non-food crops such as switchgrass and Miscanthus, and agricultural and forestry residues (corn stover and
bagasse). Another potential source of biofuels is marine plant biomass such as macroalgae and microalgae. Macroalgae has several attributes that would make it an attractive renewable source for the production of biofuels. First, production yields of marine plant biomass per unit area are much higher than those of terrestrial lignocellulosic biomass. Second, marine biomass can
be depolymerized relatively easily compared to lignocellulosic biomass as it does not contain recalcitrant lignin and cellulose crystalline structures. Third, the rate of carbon dioxide fixation by marine biomass is much higher than by terrestrial biomass, making it an attractive option for sequestration and recycling of carbon dioxide. We will present technological challenges
and economic analysis of producing ethanol from red seaweed, one of the most abundant macroalgae found in Asia.