Prospecção do uso de microalgas na síntese de etanol

Abstract

There is a growing interest in alternative sources of energy, especially those that contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, which is characteristic of traditional sources of fossil energy. For this, the use of biofuels as ethanol is seen as a viable alternative. It is noteworthy that Brazil is a pioneer in the large-scale use of fuel ethanol since the end of the 1970s, and still shows remarkable evolution, using a production model that has as raw material sugar cane. However, the current focus is to obtain new sources that present favorable income and have low costs to be expanded on the commercial scale. In this context, the use of microalgae for ethanol production is highlighted, since they have presented high photosynthetic rate and immense biodiversity and variability in their biochemical composition. In addition, algae are easy to grow and producing considerable amounts of biomass. Therefore, the aim of the current work of conclusion of course was to detail from a bibliographical review the main methods for the ethanol production by microalgae and to estimate an analysis of the economic feasibility of the process obtaining the estimation return time of investment.