| Abstract: | Over the past ten years,microalgae have been investigated as promising sources of renewable energy to replace the diminishing supply of fossil fuels and mitigate the environmental pollution caused by use of fossil fuels.In addition to providing oil-based biofuels,the use of microalgae can potentially reduce environmental pollution because algae can use industrial byproducts(CO_2,NOx,wastewater,and others)as nutrition sources.However,our previous study showed that the unacceptably high cost of biofuels production,especially culturing microalgae,remains the biggest obstacle hindering the large-scale implementation of microalgae biofuels.Therefore,future efforts will likely emphasize biotechnological approaches to improve the economic feasibility of algal biofuel production.This review summarizes the progress made over the last decade in environmental applications of microalgae,combined with data on CO_2 capture,NOx biotransformation,wastewater treatment,and synergistic applications,and discusses future prospects. |
