Energy conservation in photosynthetic microorganisms

Abstract

Photosynthesis is a biological process of energy con-version from solar radiation to useful organic compounds for the photosynthetic organisms them-selves. It, thereby, also plays a role of food production for almost all animals on the Earth. The utili-zation of photosynthesis as an artificial carbon cycle is also attracting a lot of attention regarding its benefits for human life. Hydrogen and biofuels, obtained from photosynthetic microorganisms, such as microalgae and cyanobacteria, will be promising products as energy and material resources. Considering that the efficiency of bioenergy production is insufficient to replace fos-sil fuels at present, techniques for the industrial uti-lization of photosynthesis processes need to be de-veloped intensively. Increase in the efficiency of photosynthesis, the yields of target substances, and the growth rates of algae and cyanobacteria must be subjects for efficient industrialization. Here, we overview the whole aspect of the energy production from photosynthesis to biomass production of various photosynthetic microorganisms.