Bioethanol derived from brown algae is a drop-in fuel that can be
used for existing engines. Thus, the commercialization of ethanol
production from brown algae could become possible once costeffective
methods for brown algae cultivation and integrated bioprocessing
are developed. With respect to the practice of brown
algae cultivation, it was estimated that more than 60 billion gallons
of biofuel from brown algae could be produced across three percent
of the world's coastlines [14,15]. This would result in the development
of cost-effective and large-scale cultivation methods that could be applied in the coastal environment and would certainly
meet production goals.
Metabolic engineering in the development of a microbial cell
factory that utilizes various brown algae carbohydrates and converts
those sugars to bioethanol will play a key role in the
commercialization of bioethanol production from brown algae.
Various metabolic engineering-related tools such as genomics,
proteomics, and metabolomics enable us to develop microbial cell
factories that contribute to the cost-effective production of ethanol.
In addition to bioethanol, metabolic engineering makes it possible
to expand product lines such as bio-butanol, as well as other
valuable chemicals and biopolymers.