Microalgae offer great potential for exploitation, including the
production of biodiesel, but the process is still some way from
being carbon neutral or commercially viable. Part of the
problem is that there is little established background
knowledge in the area. We should look both to achieve
incremental steps and to increase our fundamental
understanding of algae to identify potential paradigm shifts. In
doing this, integration of biology and engineering will be
essential. In this review we present an overview of a potential
algal biofuel pipeline, and focus on recent work that tackles
optimization of algal biomass production and the content of fuel
molecules within the algal cell.