Algae as a “new” biomass resource – Possibilities and Constraints

Algae are oxygenic photoautotrophs, offering a very high level of biodiversity and thus suitable for different practical applications. Today they are mainly cultivated for human/animal food or to extract high-value chemicals and pharmaceuticals. However, their exploitation could be extended. Algae are attractive as high yield biomass producers, because of the short life cycle, the ability to grow up to very high cell densities and the easy large-scale cultivation that doesn’t compete with other demands such as those of conventional crops agriculture. Algae can be a resource of renewable, sustainable biofuels. In addition, they can be transformed into ‘cell factories’ to produce recombinant proteins of interest for pharmaceutical companies.