The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12649-016-9604-3

Microalgae are nowadays regarded as a potential biomass feedstock to help reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for transportation, electricity and heat generation. Besides, microalgae have been widely investigated as a source of chemicals, cosmetics and health products, as well as animal and human feed. Among the cutting-edge applications of microalgae biomass, anaerobic digestion has shown promising results in terms of (bio)methane production. The interest of this process lies on its potential integration within the microalgae biorefinery concept, providing on the one hand a source of bioenergy, and on the other hand nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and CO2) and water for microalgae cultivation. This article reports the main findings in the field, highlighting the options to increase the (bio)methane production of microalgae (i.e. pretreatment and co-digestion) and bottlenecks of the technology. Finally, energy, economic and environmental aspects are considered.

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