Current status and perspective on algal biomass-based biobutanol production

In recent decades, research has oriented toward finding a renewable fuel from biological sources due to the depletion of fossil fuel reserves and increasing awareness on global warming. Biobutanol has been recognized as a promising alternate fuel owing to its excellent combustion value, less volatility, high octane rating, and less corrosiveness. Microbial fermentation of acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) has been noticed as the leading industrial bioprocess for biobutanol production from biomass. Recently, algae seem to be ideal candidates for producing biobutanol because they contain different fermentable sugars, are simple in production and are cost effective as they have no lignin unlike lignocellulosic biomass. Nonetheless, commercialization of algal biobutanol to replace gasoline is still not viable due to uncertainty of selecting suitable algal species, pretreatment of biomass and conversion of sugars to butanol. Hence, research is to be focused to standardize and analyze the potentiality of algal biobutanol. This chapter elaborates on the necessity of biobutanol, existing techniques, fermentation feasibilities, and other technical obstacles to commercialize biobutanol. In addition, advances of bioprocess techniques and optimization for improved biobutanol production and recovery were also discussed.