Papers by Author: Erkki Hiltunen

Abstract: With the rapid development of science and technology, human cognition towards the nature has obtained great progress. They have created abundant wealth and caused serious damage to nature as well. The extent of environmental pollution has never been serious than ever before. Bad behaviors from human have initiated a series of global problems, such as natural resources shortage, ecology imbalance, population expansion, air pollution, water pollution, desertification, species extinction, acid rain, global warming, climate change, and so on. These problems have conversely threatened the existence and development of contemporary human beings and deeply influenced the development of society and its future generations. The aim for this paper is to analyze the roots of ecological crisis and explore the roadmap of harmonious development of human and nature in order to achieve sustainable development.

Abstract: Recently biofuels derived from biomass have received increased concerns in an attempt to search for sustainable development. The first and second generation biofuels are unsustainable since the growth of these food or non-food crops for biofuel generation will compete for limited arable farmlands, thus increasing the risks on food availability. Microalgal biofuels, known as the third generation biofuels, have the potential for sustainable production in an economically effective manner. The advantages of microalgae as a biofuel feedstock are many, for instance, high photosynthesis efficiency, high oil content and noncompetition with food crop production on farmlands. Microalgae can be employed for the production of biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas, biohydrogen, among others. The integrated biorefinery approach has huge potential to greatly improve the economics of biofuel production from microalgae. However, the production of microalgal biofuels is still at pre-commercial stages since it is expensive to produce substantial amount of biofuels at a large scale. Despite this, microalgae are still the most promising and best feedstock available for the biofuels. Biotechnology advances including genetic and metabolic engineering, well-funded R&D researches and policy support can make microalgal biofuels have a bright future.

Abstract: The issues of energy shortage, global warming and climate change have led to an increased interest in new energy sector, such as microalgae-based biofuels. There are many advantages to produce microalgae as a biofuel feedstock, for instance, high photosynthesis efficiency and uncompetition with traditional agriculture on farmlands. Benefiting from current culturing technologies, such as open ponds and photobioreactors, commercial microalgae farming (e.g., Earthrise) is booming. In this regard, identifying the main environmental benefits associated with microalgae production is pretty important to support this promising industry. Although there are many researches on microalgae production, published information available on the sustainably environmental benefits is fragmented. The aims of this paper are to investigate and analyze environmental benefits related with microalgae biomass production for biofuel usage from sustainability perspective, systematically and explicitly, including water resource, land, nutrient, greenhouse gases and genetic modification dimensions.