Algae, a New Biomass Resource

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 does not compete with other demands such as those of conventional crops agriculture, notably arable land. 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.