Because of their variety of high-value products, microalgae can
become an important resource for a large number of biotechnology
areas, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and nutrition- and food
additives. Large-scale microalgal culture as source for renewable energy
is getting more attention (Mata et al., 2010) because of its
advantages compared to terrestrial oil crops with respect to its high
growing rate, low land requirement, possible high (30–50 wt.%) oil
content, and the opportunity to develop a completely closed
algae-to-biofuel cycle (Mata et al., 2010; Wijffels, 2008). As a
consequence, there has been a recent resurgence of interest and a
proliferation of algae fuel projects. At the same time, studies are
published in literature discussing the energy balance for these
processes to determine whether more energy is required for the
growing and harvesting of algae than the algae can release or not.