Advancement in Biofuel Production: From Lab to Industry with AI-driven Approaches

The ongoing climate crisis and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves have spurred interest in algae as sustainable biofuel feedstocks. Microalgae present distinct advantages, such as rapid growth, high biochemical productivity, and the capacity to thrive on non-arable land using wastewater—avoiding direct competition with food crops. Despite these strengths, scaling up microalgal biofuels is still constrained by high cultivation costs and conversion inefficiencies. Microalgae remain an underexploited resource with outstanding commercial potential, owing to their immense diversity and biomass productivity compared to terrestrial plants. The future of microalgal biofuel rests on cost-effective, advanced technologies that can accelerate their commercial rollout. This Research Topic highlights recent breakthroughs in technology, sustainability, and biorefinery strategies designed to bridge the divide between laboratory results and industrial-scale applications and to support the global transition to renewable energy.

This Research Topic aims to curate cutting-edge research and critical reviews in environmental biotechnology, with a specialized focus on microalgal-based technologies for sustainable solutions in biofuel production. Contributions must present a testable hypothesis, rigorously evaluated through empirical or computational methods, to elucidate the biological mechanisms driving microalgal performance (e.g., metabolic pathways, genetic regulation, or microbiome interactions).

We invite high-quality Original Research articles, Reviews, and Methods covering:

• Potential microalgal strains which can be utilized in wastewater treatment plants and provide biomass for other biofuel production;

• Microalgae in biochemical conversion technologies (microbial fuel cells, anaerobic digestion, fermentation, transesterification, and pyrolysis) for biofuel generation;

• Utilization and cultivation in photobioreactor and open race ponds;

• Optimizing cultivation media, reactor configurations, and understanding microalgae-bacteria interactions for elevated productivity and lower environmental impact;

• Insights into key pathways underpinning the biosynthesis of biofuel precursors (e.g., biohydrogen, biomethane, biodiesel, bio-alcohols) and carbon concentrating mechanisms in microalgae;

• Artificial intelligence (AI) with microalgal biotechnology to optimize strain selection, enhance biofuel yield, and predict cultivation conditions through machine learning-driven modeling of metabolic pathways and environmental parameters;

• Novel catalytic, biochemical, and thermochemical processes for maximizing microalgal biomass valorization, including omics-enabled strain and process engineering.

Please note that Microbiotechnology does not consider descriptive studies that are solely based on amplicon (e.g., 16S rRNA) profiles or comparisons of nucleic acid extracts (e.g., metagenomics), unless they are accompanied by a clear hypothesis and experimentation and provide insight into the microbiological system or process being studied.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Microalgae biofuels, Sustainable biofuels, Photobioreactor optimization, Phycoremediation, Microalgal biomass, Metabolic engineering of microalgae, Wastewater treatment with microalgae

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.