Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322

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Chemosphere
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere

Algae utilization and its role in the development of green cities

Kit Wayne Chew a, b, *, Kuan Shiong Khoo c, Hui Thung Foo c, Shir Reen Chia c,
Rashmi Walvekar a, b, Siew Shee Lim c
a
School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria, 43900, Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia
b
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, Fujian, China
c
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500,
Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Developments of green cities with

rich biodiversity and sustainable
environment.

Microalgae as a potential feedstock to
achieving sustainable development
goals.

Algae can produce bioenergy and
biofuel, while contributing to carbon
sequestration.

Creation of algae-powered buildings
and cities for a greener future.

Algae as a promising source for of
carbon sink to reduce global
warming.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: With the rapid urbanisation happening around the world followed by the massive demand for clean
Received 2 November 2020 energy resources, green cities play a pivotal role in building a sustainable future for the people. The
Received in revised form continuing depletion of natural resources has led to the development of renewable energy with algae as
5 December 2020
the promising source. The high growth rate of microalgae and their strong bio-fixation ability to convert
Accepted 11 December 2020
Available online 15 December 2020
CO2 into O2 have been gaining attention globally and intensive research has been conducted regarding
the microalgae benefits. The focus on potential of microalgae in contributing to the development of green
Handling Editor: Derek Muir cities is rising. The advantage of microalgae is their ability to gather energy from sunlight and carbon
dioxide, followed by transforming the nutrients into biomass and oxygen. This leads to the creation of
Keywords: green cities through algae cultivation as waste and renewable materials can be put to good use. The
Microalgae challenges that arise when using algae and the future prospect in terms of SDGs and economy will also
Environmental impact be covered in this review. The future of green cities can be enhanced with the adaptation of algae as the
Microalgal-bacterial consortium source of renewable plants to create a better outlook of an algae green city.
Life cycle assessment
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Algal green city

1. Introduction

As the world is becoming increasingly urbanised, it is estimated

* Corresponding author. School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen
University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria, 43900, Sepang, Selangor, that more than 95% of urban expansion in the next decades will
Malaysia. take place in developing world (Nations, 2020). At this rate, the
E-mail address: kitwayne.chew@xmu.edu.my (K.W. Chew).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.129322
0045-6535/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
natural resources will continue to be depleted in an even faster rate,
and this rapid urbanisation comes with a cost. Cities are facing
inequality and the levels of urban energy consumption as well as
ambient air pollution causes 9 out of 10 humans living in urban area
breathing air which did not meet the standard of air quality from
World’s Health Organization air quality guidelines (Nations, 2020).
Urbanisation increases vulnerability because cities will suffer from
enormous human, social and economic losses when natural
disaster strikes due to climate change so building urban resilience is
crucial. The world’s cities are accountable for 60e80% of energy
consumption and 75% of carbon emissions even though they only
occupy 3% of the Earth’s land (Nations, 2020). More than 70% of the
GHGs emissions are associated with urban centres and some of the
megacities such as New York releases more than some states for
example Bangladesh (Clark II and Cooke, 2016). Green cities play a
crucial role in fighting the climate crisis and ensuring a sustainable
urban future for the next generations. Therefore, to tackle climate
change, cities must be at the forefront of the effort. In order to
develop green cities, one of the critical issues is to introduce a
renewable energy source and use energy storage with a smart in-
tegrated grid system to provide an equal distribution of energy.
Renewable energy source such as solar energy is highly
dependent on the weather and even though solar energy can still
be collected during cloudy or rainy days; the efficiency of the sys-
tem will reduce significantly. Furthermore, it requires huge plots of
land to produce solar power at large scales. According to a related
study, 1 MW solar power plant with crystalline panels which has
about 18% efficiency would need around 16,187 m2 of land area,
whereas thin film technologies that has 12% efficiency would need
24,281 m2 (Kabir et al., 2018). Solar energy also have a high initial
installation cost, for instance, in 2016, the average price per watt for
solar energy was $3.70 in the USA and with the average solar en-
ergy system of 5 kW for each household, the total cost will be
$13,000 (Kabir et al., 2018). As for wind power, although it helps to
reduce the carbon dioxide emission by replacing fossil fuel, it also
releases carbon dioxide during the construction of the wind turbine
(Wang et al., 2016). Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is important to
assess the life cycle of GHG emissions from wind power, because it
considers the whole life from-cradle-to-grave which means the
whole cycle from raw material extraction through material pro-
cessing to disposal or recycling. A study by Wiedmann et al. (2011)
reported that the GHG emissions from 2 MW wind turbine were
13.4 g CO2e/kW/h using a process-based LCA (Wiedmann et al.,
2011). Besides that, wind turbine also have several disadvantages
such as noise pollution, birds and bats fatality (Wang and Wang,
2015). The noise from the wind turbine is more noticeable at
lower wind speed which is around 4e6 m/s. A report from Kaldellis
et al. (2012) revealed that at 5.1 m/s wind speed at 10 m height, the
noise from wind turbines was 48.5 dB, roughly 9 dB more than the
ambient sound (Kaldellis et al., 2012). Moreover, with the current
renewable energy sources, even though the CO2 emission could be
reduced, they are not able to mitigate the excessive amount of CO2
in the atmosphere. However, with the current technology maturity
and limitations, there is still lack of effective ways to reduce the CO2
sustainably. One of the main challenges are the high productivity
cost and the deficiency of large scales experiments.
In recent years, algae have started to be seen as an attractive
source of energy (Yaşar, 2018). Algae are being considered as an
alternative fuel sources that focus on environmental and economic
sustainability. They are also obtainable from domestic sources for a
cleaner environment. Other than that, they are safer, do not
compete with food crops and can reach maturity in short period of
time, thus algae are popular among those could be used for bio-
diesel production (Khan et al., 2017). The main composition of
microalgae consists of lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, carotenoids
2
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
(i.e., astaxanthin, lutein and fucoxanthin) and nucleic acids (Chew
et al., 2019c; Khoo et al., 2019, 2020a). The specific content of
each of this constituent is dependent on the algae strain and can be
significantly influenced by the cultivation system applied. Algae
convert energy from sunlight and is stored as carbohydrate or lipid
when undergoes photosynthesis. The energy stored is then
extracted from algae for energy production. Moreover, algae are
capable of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and utilized it in the
microalgae cultivation (Chew et al., 2017). This CO2 bio-fixation of
algae can reduce the excessive CO2 available in the air and decrease
the global warming effect, thus making the algae feedstock envi-
ronmentally sustainable (Chew et al., 2018b). Carbon dioxide is
readily available in the atmosphere in concentration of 0.03e0.06%
(v/v) (Cheah et al., 2015). Flue gas is also one of the inexpensive
sources that consists of 6e15% (v/v) of CO2. There are two types of
cultivation system for microalgae which are open pond (OP) such as
natural ponds, raceway ponds or circle ponds and photobioreactor
(PBR). Table 1 shows the comparisons between these cultivation
systems, OP and PBR. Between these two methods, open systems
are frequently used for commercial microalgae cultivation. This is
because OP is more inexpensive in terms of the installation and
operation cost compared to PBR (Zhou et al., 2017). However, OP is
also bounded by the fact that it affects the growth of a few algae
species due to contamination issues and it produces a lower
biomass yield. Besides that, OP produces a larger footprint, high
evaporations loss and light intensity decays rapidly with medium
depth than PBR (Zhou et al., 2017). On the other hand, PBRs have an
easier control of parameters that influence on the algae growth
significantly and is capable of high biomass yield. Compared to OP,
PBR has a more stable culture conditions as it is a closed system and
has a high area/volume ratio to improve the mass transfer effi-
ciency which require less land occupation and reduce the carbon
footprint simultaneously. Even though it is closed system, both
artificial and natural light sources can be collected and delivered
into the bioreactor interior by using optical fibre to have maximum
light intensity (Leong et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2017).
Hence, this present review aims to fully explore the potential of
algae in every aspect to develop green cities. The growth of
microalgae is influenced by various factors such as pH condition,
temperature, light intensity, CO2 concentration and excess nutri-
ents. Environmental stress also results in the improvement of the
carbohydrate and lipid accumulation in microalgae. Nonetheless,
these conditions are different for every species, and each of them
are analysed to achieve the optimal environment for the microalgae
to grow. This variation can also greatly affect the microalgal bio-
fixation efficiency and biomass productions. With this algae tech-
nology, a cleaner and eco-friendly renewable energy can be inte-
grated into our daily life, hence creates a sustainable community for
all. In short, this paper will review on the possibilities and advan-
tages of algae resources in contributing in the developments of
green cities as well as the major aspect of the green cities. The
future prospects and challenges of microalgae in large scale
Table 1
Comparisons between OP and PBR.
Comparisons OP PBR
Cost Low High
Biomass yield Low High
Contamination risk High Low
Light intensity High Low
Control of parameters Harder Easier
Culture conditions Not stable Stable
Evaporation rate High Low
Carbon footprint High Low
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
cultivation are also discussed in this review. Lastly, this review at-
tempts to give an insight into the outlook of an algae green city.
2. Algae and its environmental impact
Algae, much like any other plant, contain chlorophyll but lack
leaves, roots, vascular tissue, and stems. They are a diverse species
and can express themselves in a nearly limitless number of species
and strains. They are categorized into microalgae and macroalgae
(Chia et al., 2018). Examples of microalgae species are Chlorella and
Spirulina which are unicellular organisms, whereas examples of
macroalgae are seaweed which are multicellular organisms. Algae
plays a vital role in the aquatic ecosystems. They are able to convert
water and carbon dioxide into sugar via photosynthesis and gen-
erates oxygen as a by-product (Tang et al., 2020). However, if they
are not managed properly, they might have a detrimental effect on
the environment. One of the environmental impacts is algae bloom
or eutrophication which is mainly caused by the run-off from the
land (Usher et al., 2014). This causes the water to become overly
enrich with nutrients and induces the algae to grow excessively.
Once algal blooms die off, a substantial amount of dissolved oxygen
is used by bacteria to breakdown the organic matters, depleting
oxygen levels in the waterbody. This phenomenal can create dead
zones or sometimes known as hypoxia and they are defined as the
areas in water with little or no oxygen where no aquatic life can
survive (Tang et al., 2020). Aquatic animals especially young fishes
and shellfish like crabs and clams will need to leave the polluted
area to stay alive.
Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) is also one of the environmental
impacts of algae and it is caused by both climate change and
anthropogenic activities (EPA, 2020). HABs often occur in marine
and coastal areas and the affected regions will encounter low level
of dissolved oxygen (DO), thermal extremes, and low pH level. The
main reason why coastal areas are often affected by HABs is because
it is commonly susceptible to anthropogenic runoffs such as
municipal, industrial, and agricultural waste. The disposed wastes
are normally untreated and carry pathogens, organic and inorganic
nutrient, heavy metals, and detergents which are very harmful and
poisonous to the marine and coastal ecosystems. These can affect
the entire food chain in coastal areas. Furthermore, waste outflow
will increase the nutrients which can have bottom up effects and
change the community structure in the marine ecosystems to
configure massive blooms harmful algal species. Cultured and wild
fishes may also experience death resulting from the choking of gills
due to mucus production of phytoplankton. Although algal blooms
are non-toxic, however they can still have a negative impact to
aquatic life by blocking out sunlight penetration and clogging fish
gills, thus killing the fishes. Low density of HABs can produce bio-
toxins, which then being concentrated by filter feeder and other
organisms that may subsequently be ingested by humans
(Mahmudi et al., 2020).
2.1. Advantages and benefits of using algae for green communities
By introducing the concept of green communities with algae
utilization, a greener environment, vibrated economy, as well as a
higher quality of life can be implemented. In addition, the depletion
of natural resources can be reduced, and pollution can be mitigated.
Several investigations have been discussed regarding the advan-
tages and benefits of algae for green communities. It was concluded
that algae is an environmental friendly resource and has great
potential to meet the global demand in the long term (Vassilev and
Vassileva, 2016). Bioenergy and biofuels are defined as liquid fuels
produced from biomass which most of it are by-products of agri-
cultural or industrial biodegradable waste. Recent years, algae have
3
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
proven to be a superior and huge feedstock to fully and partly
displace terrestrial biomass for producing sustainable bioenergy
and biomaterials (Khoo et al., 2020c; Vassilev and Vassileva, 2016).
Algal-based fuels are considered as the most sustainable and
renewable response to tackle climate change. Algae do not compete
with foods and feeds, and they avoid land use changes. As a result,
algal-based fuels can offer a buffer by reducing the food versus fuel
problem in the future. Particularly, it was discovered that unlike
other biofuels, algal feedstock is not affected by the food market
price volatilities, which guarantees higher price stability of the
algal-based fuel for the consumers (Chew et al., 2018a).
2.1.1. Enormous greenhouse gases (GHGs) uptake
Algae is a great CO2 absorbent and it is capable of CO2 fixation,
hence providing enormous greenhouse gas uptake especially with
CO2 capture and sequestration. Algae-based fuel releases extra
oxygen as by-product, adding fresh oxygen to polluted cities, thus
decreases the greenhouse effect in that particular city. In this
context, algae are also able to convert large amount of CO2 into
biomass, releasing even more oxygen through photosynthesis.
Furthermore, due to its high energy conversion efficiency via
photosynthesis, algae can convert stronger liquid transportation
fuels such as green diesel, jet fuel and JP-8 which have 30e50%
more energy per gallon than gasoline (Khan et al., 2017). For
instance, they are able to produce chemical energy that have much
higher photosynthetic efficiency, 4.0e8.0% for microalgae and
10.0% for macroalgae than that of terrestrial biomass which is
approximately within 0.5e2.2% (Vassilev and Vassileva, 2016).
The determination of the microalgae strains for the cultivation
can significantly affects the efficiency of the CO2 bioconversion for
biomass production (Zhou et al., 2017). The ideal algal species
should have high sinking capacity, good tolerance to various con-
ditions such as CO2 concentration, toxic pollutants concentrations,
temperature, nutrients limitation and pH effect. Table 2 reviews the
different microalgae species that have discussed in several studies
on CO2 bio-fixation. However, it still lacks some data in the
comparative studies between the microalgae strains due to the
various parameters and cultivation system. For clearer clarification,
Singh et al. (2014) concluded that microalgae species Scenedesmus
obliquus, Botryococcus braunii, Chlorella vulgaris and Nanno-
chloropsis oculata shows potential results for carbon sequestration
and biofuel production (Singh et al., 2014). Chlorella sp. was
considered as the species that possesses higher biomass production
up to 1.06 g L/d as compared to Cyanophytes and Chrysophyte
species in a study conducted by Zhao and Su (2014). Chlorella sp.,
Scenedesmus sp. and Spirulina sp. produce high biomass yield. To
indicate the ideal microalgae species, the tolerance level of each
microalgae is considered and analysed. In a corresponding study by
Jiang et al. (2013), within 10.0% (v/v) and 20.0% (v/v) of CO2, it was
revealed that Scenedesmus dimorphus produced a biomass of 4.51
and 3.82 g/L, respectively but is capable of achieving maximum
biomass of 5.17 g/L with only 2.0% (v/v) CO2. This shows that Sce-
nedesmus sp. has high tolerance level against CO2 concentration,
allowing it to grow within the range of 10e20% (v/v) even though
the best CO2 concentration is only 2.0% (v/v). It also showed that
Spirulina sp. have a similar biomass yield regardless the CO2 con-
centration used which is 6.0% and 12.0%.
2.1.2. Easily cultured and readily and rapidly bioengineered
Algae holds great potential since they have a fast growth rate
and at the same time having high growing yield per hectare which
is way more productive than that of terrestrial biomass. They are
well known as the fastest growing organisms in the planet and they
only need a few hours to reproduce. According to a study by Ullah
et al. (2015), they have the ability to grow 20e30 times faster than
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al. Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322

Table 2
Microalgae biomass yield and their CO2 fixation rate.

Microalgae species Initial CO2 (%) (v/v) CO2 bio-fixation rate (g/L/d) Biomass yield (g/L) Cultivation system Reference

Botryococcus braunii 5 0.5 3.11 Fermenter Sydney et al. (2010)

Chlorella vulgaris 0.03 e ~0.32 Sequential bioreactor Lam et al. (2012)
0.09 3.45 0.90 Membrane-sparged helical tubular Fan et al. (2008)
bioreactor
2.0 0.43 2.03 Vertical tubular bioreactor Yeh and Chang (2011)
5.0 0.25 1.94 Fermenter Sydney et al. (2010)
6.0 2.22 10.02 Glass bubble column Anjos et al. (2013)
Chlorella sp. 2.0 0.86 e Bubble column Chiu et al. (2009a, 2009b)
5.0 0.70 e Vertical tubular bioreactor Ryu et al. (2009)
10.0 e 2.25 Lab scale flask method Ramanan et al. (2010)
10.0 e 5.15 Air lift photobioreactor Chiu et al. (2009a, 2009b)
Nannochloropsis oculata 2.0e15.0 e 0.25e1.32 Cylindrical glass photobioreactor Chiu et al. (2009a, 2009b)
Scenedesmus dimorphus 2.0 e 5.17 e Jiang et al. (2013)
10.0 e 4.51 e
20.0 e 3.82 e
Scenedesmus obliquus 10.0 0.55 3.51 Glass-made vessel Ho et al. (2012)
Spirulina sp. 6.0 e 3.40 Serial tubular photobioreactor De Morais and Costa (2007)
12.0 e 3.50

food crops and even holds up to 30 times more fuel than the other
biofuel resources (Ullah et al., 2015). The study also revealed that
the total net annual harvest of algal biomass yields around 4e100
tons of dry biomass per hectare per year. In addition, microalgae
can produce a much higher yield per hectare than macroalgae
(Chen et al., 2015). Notably, microalgae only needs around 10 days
to reach maturity and is ready to be harvest, which can have
multiple harvest in a short period of time (Ziolkowska and Simon,
2014). With right settings and environment, microalgae can grow
twice as much in volume or mass in just one night as some
microalgae species are able to double their size within short period
of time (Sambusiti et al., 2015). As a result, due to its high pro-
ductivity rates, microalgae are capable of producing 500 kg in
1000 m2 within a day (Huber et al., 2006). Algae are non-toxic fuel
resource and highly biodegradable with quick bioremediation.
Furthermore, they are easily cultured, more readily and rapidly
bioengineered than other biomass, and do not require any herbi-
cides and pesticides in algae cultivation. Moreover, algae contain
high concentration of oil and energy, therefore can be very valuable
after being processed. Since PBR shows more promising result than
OP, different types of PBR are designed to adapt specific parameters
such as pH, temperature, nutrient and light intensity. These ad-
vantages are even more important if the desired microalgae are
used for pharmaceutical purposes or highly selective products ap-
plications (Manirafasha et al., 2019). For instance, there are
numerous types of PBR set up: horizontal, vertical column, tubular,
flat panel and hybrid systems, where the aeration and mixing are
generated by bubble column or air-lift systems. Table 3 compares
the various cultivation systems for microalgae.
2.1.3. Potential use of wastewater as a nutrient source
Microalgae wastewater treatment has been receiving much in-
terest from scientist these days due to the high nutrient removal
efficiency of microalgae in the microbial realm (Aron et al., 2020).
They have great potential in removing high concentration of nu-
trients that are present in wastewater because they require nutri-
ents such as nitrogen, phosphate, ammonia and trace elements for
growth. Moreover, using wastewater as a nutrient source for algal
cultivation are able to bring down the amount of freshwater and
fertilizers consumed for algae cultivation (Chia et al., 2018). Like-
wise, it could provide resource efficiency in a larger scale with
accessible water and nutrients from wastewater. As mentioned
before, microalgae play a crucial part in wastewater bioremedia-
tion, in fact they are considered as the dominant biotics used in the
oxidation ponds in wastewater and sewage treatment plant (Chew
et al., 2018b; Leong et al., 2019).
Wastewater are known as the discharged water that consists
high concentration of nutrients or oxygen demanding waste, for
instance nitrogen, phosphorus, disposed by different sources
including municipal, industrial and agricultural sectors. For this
reason, the type of wastewater also has an indirectly effect on the
removal efficiency of the microalgae as each type of wastewater
have different quantity of nutrients. Wastewater disposed by swine
industry contain greater N and P concentration than municipal
wastewater. Other than that, wastewater released by rice, dairy,
brewery industry also consists abundance of soluble COD. In order
to fully utilize the advantages of microalgae, the composition of the
wastewater must be carefully assessed, because the nitrogen to
phosphorus molar ratios (N:P) can significantly affect the algal
biomass production and the removal efficiency. In a related study, it
proposed that if the N:P molar ratios is lower than 5:1, it could lead
to nitrogen limitation; while N:P molar ratios higher than 30:1 can
cause phosphorus limitation (Gonçalves et al., 2014). For brewery
and starch industry wastewaters, the N:P molar ratio is 1:1 whereas
for landfill leachate, the N:P molar ratio is 42:1. The most ideal
wastewater composition for the growth of microalgae will be the
wastewater disposed from piggery, dairy manure industry, do-
mestic and municipal sewage wastewaters which has N:P molar

Table 3
Comparison studies of various cultivation systems (Cheah et al., 2015).

Cultivation System Cost Scale-up Energy consumption Space Gas transfer Light efficiency Growth Rate

Airlift photobioreactor High Difficult Middle Low Good High High

Tubular photobioreactor High Difficult High Low Good High High
Flat plate photobioreactor High Middle Middle Low Good High High
Bag photobioreactor Low Middle Middle Low Good High High
Membrane photobioreactor High Difficult Middle Low Good High High
Filtration photobioreactor High Middle Middle Low Good High High

4
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al. Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322

ratios of 9:1, 14:1, 11:1 and 15:1, respectively (Gonçalves et al., 2017;
Leong et al., 2019). Table 4 evaluate the various types of wastewater
and their composition.
2.1.4. Microalgae-bacterial consortium
The symbiosis relationship between the microalgae and bacteria
are being recognized globally to be integrated in the wastewater
bioremediation. This unique system has been exploited by various
studies to increase the removal efficiency of nutrients in waste-
water and provides clean water to the public (Leong et al., 2019).
Other than that, it can be easily substitute into the conventional
wastewater treatment plant. In order to achieve the balance be-
tween these two organisms, both are obtaining organic and inor-
ganic nutrients from each other. Hence, they are consequently
having different biological metabolic activity, for instance, aerobic
respiration and photosynthesis. Moreover, the microalgal-bacterial
consortium can enhance the biomass growth as well as removing
the nutrients from wastewater more effectively because of the
elevated biological metabolic activities by the symbiotic relation-
ship between microalgae and bacteria. Numerous studies have
been carried out to estimate the removal efficiency of nutrients
subjected to the population dynamics of microalgal-bacterial con-
sortium with the different condition and parameters such as
aeration rate and light intensity. A study by Park et al. (2008)
revealed that by isolating eight bacterial strains from a laboratory
stock of Chlorella ellipsoidea, it is discovered that one single bacte-
rium Brevundimonas sp. shows promising result of improving the
growth rate of microalgae. A related study also proposed that the
bacteria mitigates the photosynthetic oxygen tension of photo-
trophic microalgae by utilizing the O2 as their electron acceptor
(Park et al., 2008). Furthermore, it is also hypothesized that this
2.1.5. Diversification of fuel supply and energy security
One of the benefits of using algae is that they provide a certain
levels of energy independence for example nations can have mul-
tiple sources to ensure maximum energy security instead of
dependent solely on one energy source or import sources (Doshi
et al., 2016). It is also essential to have diverse energy source, so if
one of it fails, others can still provide continuous energy supply for
the country. A nation that relies heavily on one source of energy
such as electricity from coal is prone to disruptions in that sector. A
large shock to the coal supply would result in a shortage of available
electricity if there was no other source (Lyndon and Donev, 2016).
For instance, country like Canada is less prone to electricity
shortage due to the diverse energy mix such as coal, nuclear, nat-
ural gas and it is less likely that every system would break down at
the same time (Lyndon and Donev, 2016).
Table 5 shows the Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) of four
different countries. This situation evaluates the demands of high
energy consumption which will eventually cause scarcity of fuels in
the upcoming few decades. In order to solve this obstacles, alter-
native energy source for instance algal biofuel can be introduced to
the country’s total primary energy supply. Biofuels can contribute
to the decrease in the GHG emission rate from transportation and at
the same time adding extra energy security. With the integration of
algal biofuel, it fulfilled the energy demands of India’s rural popu-
lation by improving rural development and providing jobs oppor-
tunities. As of 2015, 22% of the total primary energy supply are from
biofuels and waste can be observed from the data which strengthen
Table 5
Total Primary Energy Supply of four different countries (Lyndon and Donev, 2016).

symbiosis relationship is favourable to algae due to the fact that it Energy supply (%) Trinidad and Tabaco Japan India Vietnam
offers nutrients such as vitamins for the algae which are mostly Natural gas 29.8 23.3 4.8 12.9
auxotrophic (Croft et al., 2005). Bacteria can also improve the effi- Crude oil 70.2 39.5 27.8 10.2
ciency of flocculation in the wastewater treatment process. None- Coal e 27.3 42.2 33.8
theless, it is notable that even though a lots of benefits are offered Biofuels <0.01 2.7 22 21
Oil product e 3.5 e 15.2
by the microalgae-bacteria consortium, there are a few drawbacks
Hydro e 1.7 1.3 6.5
such as microalgae could have antibacterial effects on the bacteria Solar and wind e 0.9 0.5 0.44
whereas the bacteria can cause algicidal effects on algae (Wang Nuclear e 0.6 1.1 e
et al., 2016). Other than that, the metabolism of the algae could Electricity e e 0.34 0.2
increase the pH level and temperature which are unfavourable for Geothermal e 0.6 e e
Total (unit) 812.2 17994.3 35635 3090
bacteria.

Table 4
Evaluation on the various types of wastewater and their composition.

Wastewater type Source Nitrogen (mg/L) Phosphorus (mg/L) Carbon (mg/L) References

Agricultural wastewater Potato-processing effluent 54 NO3eN 48 PO4eP 745 COD Hern

andez et al. (2013)
12 NH4eN
Rice effluent 25e95 TN 12e94 PO4eP 2578e6480 COD Queiroz et al. (2007)
Anaerobically-digested Dairy manure <1 NO3eN 240 TP 4855e4945 COD Wilkie and Mulbry (2002)
wastewater 1279e1961
NH4eN
Municipal sewage 646 NH4eN 101 PO4eP 76 TOC Posadas et al. (2013)
Piggery manure 303e495 NH4eN e e
lez-Ferna
Gonza
ndez et al. (2011)
Industrial wastewater Brewery 2e11 NO3eN 57e326 TP 565e7837 COD Raposo et al. (2010)
3e106 NH4eN
Carpet mill 0e28 NO3eN 20e35 PO4eP 1412 COD Chinnasamy et al. (2010)
18e26 NH4eN
Dairy <1 NO3eN 35e350 TP 2000e20213 COD (Qin et al., 2016; Wilkie and Mulbry, 2002)
120e350 NH4eN
Municipal wastewater Domestic sewage 25e66 NH4eN 7e12 PO4eP 400e500 COD (Posadas et al., 2013; Singh and Thomas, 2012)
Landfill leachate 112e192 NH4eN 7e9 PO4eP 3725e4861 COD Mustafa et al. (2012)
Sewage 1 NO3eN 1e12 PO4eP 183e380 COD (Herna
ndez et al., 2013;
23e219 NH4eN Silva-Benavides and Torzillo, 2012; Su et al., 2012)

NO3eN - nitrate-nitrogen; NH4eN - ammonium-nitrogen; TN - total nitrogen; PO4eP - phosphate-phosphorus; TP - total phosphorus; TOC - total organic carbon; COD -
chemical oxygen demand.

5
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
the energy security of India by promoting use of renewable source
of energy such as algal biodiesel as a fuel supply (Sharma and Singh,
2017).
2.1.6. Geographical independence
Algae are geographical independence can easily adapt to
different kinds of climate condition even in the harshest environ-
ments on Earth. They can grow almost anywhere in any altitude,
latitude or geography and do not require agriculturally productive
or environmentally sensitive land to reproduce (Vassilev and
Vassileva, 2016). There has been much controversy and debate on
the sustainability of energy crops such as oil palm and rapeseed
throughout the years due to the food versus fuel competition and
their land occupancies. Algae can be recognized as an alternative
feedstock to replace the conventional biofuel crops as they do not
compete with crops for arable land. Other than that, algae feedstock
can utilize wasteland which are unsuitable for agricultural practice
because they can easily adapt to the harsh environments. Moreover,
due to their strong adaptability nature, they can even survive in
industrial, municipal and agricultural wastewaters and on landfills
while treating the wastewater by removing the nutrients such as N
and P, hence providing clean water to the community (Vassilev and
Vassileva, 2016). Water filled areas that are not appropriate for
growing land crops can be utilized as the area for microalgae
cultivation (Singh et al., 2011). This also do not compromise the
land and water resources and will not have a substantial effect on
the food cost. Table 6 shows the water footprint and land use of
various energy crops. Notably, data on microalgae stands out. In
terms of land use, microalgae feedstock has the lowest value which
range from 2 to 13 m2/GJ (Singh et al., 2011).
3. Major aspects in a green city on how algae can contribute
in each aspect
3.1. Energy consumption
A city is considered as “climate-neutral” if the GHGs emissions
can keep global warming lower than the dangerous threshold
which is 2  C (Clark II and Cooke, 2016). Microalgae are being
considered as the third generation feedstock for bioenergy pro-
duction such as biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas (Chia et al., 2018;
Mat Aron et al., 2020). These bio-energies are clean and renewable
energy to provide sustainable transportation, recycling, clean wa-
ter, and urban forests, help to make a more liveable community as
well as helping to tackle the global climate crisis.
3.1.1. Algal-based biodiesel
Biodiesel has been proven to provide an alternative approach to
replace the non-renewable petroleum fuel and it is defined as the
monoalkyl esters triglycerides that are present in microalgal lipids,
vegetable oils or animal fats (Chia et al., 2018). Some research
revealed that few algae types consist of 80% oil in their total dry
mass (Yaşar, 2018). Since most of the algae cells are grown with
water, CO2 and dissolved nutrient in aqueous suspension environ-
ment, they possess great scale biomass production capacities.
However, because of the cost of biodiesel production, especially the
Table 6
Water footprint, land use and biofuel yield of various energy crops.
Energy crop Water footprint (m3/GJ)
Rapeseed 383
Oil palm 75
Coconut 49
Microalgae <379
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
high forage cost of vegetable oils, they still are a major challenge to
overcome for large scale of use in trade. The viscosity of the oils and
fats that are not suitable for vehicles engines is decrease by the
process of transesterification (Mat Aron et al., 2020). According to
Chia et al. (2018) reported that the microalgae-based biodiesel
undergoes combustion would result in reduced CO emissions and
NOx emissions with exhaust gas recirculation. As a conclusion, the
utilization of biodiesel blends proved to be beneficial towards the
environmental by mitigating the GHGs emissions and reduce the
harmful effect of global warming simultaneously.
3.1.2. Algal-based bioethanol
Bioethanol is one of the major biofuels and it is being used
worldwide. One of the reasons is because ethanol has high effi-
ciency of internal combustion engines, it is capable of reducing the
gasoline consumption by 3.0e4.4% and mitigates the carbon diox-
ide emissions by 19e35 metric tons annually when it is utilized as
an octane booster for gasoline and the use of blends with up to 40%
ethanol (Mat Aron et al., 2020). Bioethanol can be derived from
microalgae in a series of processes including, firstly the biomass
production and harvesting, followed by pre-treatment to extract
the fermentable sugars, fermentation of the sugars to ethanol, and
lastly the purification of ethanol (Chia et al., 2018). In the biomass
production, the algae biomass provides protein and carbohydrate in
the form of glucose, starch and other polysaccharides, which acts as
source of carbon in the fermentation process (Chew et al., 2019a;
Yaşar, 2018). In a related study, the algae species Chlorococcum
infusionum and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii shows promising result
which produce ethanol with high yield percentage from algae. For
C. infusionum, it has collected 0.26 g ethanol/g algae and the car-
bohydrate content of the algal biomass was around 32%. On the
other hand, C. reinhardtii produced a yield of 0.235 g ethanol/g
algae from the biomass and have a carbohydrate content percent-
age of 60% (Chia et al., 2018). There are some algae species that are
promising sources for bioethanol production due to the high
accumulation of carbohydrates and starch in the algae. In the
process of fermentation, it requires less energy consumption
because it is a much simpler than that of the biodiesel production.
Additionally, the by-product CO2 generated during the fermenta-
tion process can be recycled as the carbon source for algae which is
an added benefit to the environment (Yaşar, 2018).
3.1.3. Algal-based biogas
Biogas is mainly used to provide energy for industrial and
consumer activities, supplying heat energy and much more (Chia
et al., 2018; Mat Aron et al., 2020). Methane and hydrogen are
some of the examples of biogas. For methane, it can be derived from
algae through various methods including gasification, pyrolysis,
and anaerobic decomposition. In the gasification and pyrolysis
method, methane is collected and being processed under high
temperature and pressure. For anaerobic decomposition, it involves
the decomposition process of organic substances under vacuum
conditions. On the other hand, hydrogen can be produced via bio-
logical process from algae biomass such as dark fermentation,
photo-fermentation, anaerobic fermentation, bio-photolysis or a
mixture of these processes (Gupta et al., 2017). Several successful
Land use (m2/GJ) Energy (GJ/ha/a) Biofuel yield (L/ha/a)
285 39 1190
52 192 5906
128 78 2399
2e13 793e4457 24355e136886
6
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
studies have concluded that for biomethane gas, anaerobic
decomposition process have shown promising result and has great
potential in converting algae biomass into biogas. However, for the
large-scale biogas production, further investigation needs to be
conducted in order to enhance the extraction efficiency and biogas
yield. Fig. 1 shows the potential application on utilizing microalgae
biomass.
3.2. Levels of pollution and carbon emission
Rapid urbanisation has implicated the enormous surge in the
global transportation fleet and the emission of GHGs are increasing
every year. This causes environmental issues such as global
warming and air pollution, thus worsening the climate change.
With the algal-derived biofuel, it has a great potential to be cost-
effective and environmentally friendly as well as greatly reduce
the CO2 and other GHGs like NOx or SOx emissions because it offers
biological carbon sequestration. Furthermore, algae can also derive
into different biofuels for instance, biodiesel, bio-hydrogen and
biogas with eco-friendly technology. As mention in the previous
paragraph, algal-derived fuels offer a more powerful transportation
fuel than gasoline and it is a non-toxic fuel which releases oxygen
as by-product.
Besides that, the Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
is gaining lots of attention from scientist because it is considered as
one of the promising approaches to achieve global sustainability.
BECCS involves the generation of energy through the burning of
biomass coupled with the capture and storage of the resulting CO2
in geological or other long-term reservoirs (via post-combustion,
oxyfuel or pre-combustion). If biomass cultivation and associated
land-use changes are practised sustainably, this process has the
potential to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, thereby delivering
net-negative emissions (Bellamy et al., 2019). In a study conducted
by Beal et al. (2018), integrated Algae with Bioenergy Carbon
Capture and Storage (ABECCS) by using eucalyptus forests to
replace soy cropland with the purpose of marine algae having
sufficient amount of carbon dioxide, heat, and electricity. Beal et al.
(2018) concluded that ABECCS harvests as much high-graded pro-
tein as soy and did not require extra consumption of freshwater. In
addition, the integrated system also produces around 60 TJ of
electricity and capturing 29,600 tons of CO2 every year (Beal et al.,
2018).
Fig. 1. Potential application on utilizing microalgae biomass.
7
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
In comparison to the terrestrial plants, microalgae has a higher
fixation efficiency in capturing CO2 from atmosphere and flue gas,
then converting it into organic compounds (Lam et al., 2012). The
CO2 bio-fixation efficiency of the microalgae is mainly determined
by five factors including the characteristic of the microalgae strain,
carbon dioxide concentration, the cultivation methods and the PBR
set up, the operating parameters and environmental factors (Lam
et al., 2012). Other than that, different CO2 concentration are
tested on the microalgae to evaluate the optimal condition for bio-
fixation process. For instance, most of the microalgae require high
carbon dioxide concentration in the culture medium hence sug-
gesting that the particular strain of microalgae have a stronger
ability in bio sequestration of high carbon dioxide concentration. To
determine the removal efficiency of CO2 in microalgae, the differ-
ence of the influent and effluent is observed.
In respective to the work, Ho et al. (2010) modified a glass-made
vessel and airlift PBR to investigate the CO2 bio-fixation of
S. obliquus. Results shows that with a lower concentration, the
microalgae species will have a faster growth rate and higher
removal efficiency of carbon dioxide. In contrast, a different
conclusion on other microalgae species, Spirulina sp. was found,
and this is due to the fact that both of these studies have different
method of cultivation and growth parameters. In Table 2, it is
revealed that the growth rate and the removal efficiency of Spir-
ulina sp. are inversely proportional to the concentration of CO2.
While high concentration of carbon dioxide could increase the
mass transfer rate of CO2, it should be noted that the excessive CO2
concentration can causes the decreasing of pH level, indirectly
hinders the growth rate of microalgae. According to Frigon et al.
(2013), the diffusion of CO2 in liquid phase is 104 times slower
than that of gaseous phase. This leads to the lack of carbon dioxide
supply to the growth of microalgae strains due to the concentration
of the CO2 in the atmosphere is only about 360 ppm.
3.3. Algae contribution on water quality
With the increased global population growth, followed by the
enormous waste production by urban centres, thus it is crucial to
introduce a new wastewater treatment which is eco-friendly and
sustainable. Wastewater are considered as an alternative nutrient
source for algae due to its capacity to harbour large quantity of
algae (Leong et al., 2019). Moreover, it also promotes bioremedia-
tion when the algae break down environmental pollutants such as
heavy metals or toxic chemicals from pharmaceutical, agro-
industrial or textile dye wastewater. At the same time, nutrients
from the wastewater acts as raw materials for the production of
algae biomass and production of high-value products (Manirafasha
et al., 2019). It is proven that algae have great potential in digesting
a large quantity of nutrients which are required for growth as well
as preventing eutrophication in lakes or rivers.
Even though chemical and physical based technologies are more
commonly used for wastewater treatment, they require high en-
ergy consumption and needed large quantity of chemicals such as
chloride to eliminate bacteria which are very costly and less eco-
friendly. On the other hand, microalgae wastewater treatment of-
fers an inexpensive and environmentally friendly approach to
provide clean water to the public accompanied with resource re-
covery, recycling, and feedstock production. With this new tech-
nology, it is capable to produce microalgae biomass that can be
utilized into high-value products such as biofuels, bio-fertilizers,
and pharmaceutical production (Chew et al., 2019b). In fact, it is
more likely to be more resistant to environmental conditions os-
cillations than the conventional wastewater treatment (Gonçalves
et al., 2017). More importantly, it cut down the energy consump-
tion because in compared to the conventional activated sludge
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al. Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322

Table 7
Removal efficiency of nutrients for various types of microorganism (Gonçalves et al., 2017).

Microorganisms Waste stream System and operation Removal Nitrogen Phosphorus Carbon Ref.
mode Time (d)
Ci (mg/L) %R Ci (mg/L) %R Ci (mg/L) %R Ref.

Concentrated wastewater Primary-treated domestic Immobilized system 10 91 TN 70 7 PO4eP 85 181 TOC 90 Posadas
native algal-bacterial wastewater (biofilm reactor), et al. (2013)
consortium continuous mode, V ¼ 31 L
Chlorella vulgaris and Primary-treated municipal Closed suspended system, 8e20 17e207 30.9e100 1.4e19.6 TP 65e98 e e He et al.
primary-treated wastewater batch mode, V ¼ 1.5 L NH4eN (2013)
municipal wastewater
native bacteria
Microalgal consortium from Synthetic wastewater Closed suspended system, 2e20 120 75e96 n.a. n.a.
ntara
200 TOC 86e90 Alca
a high rate algal pond continuous mode, V ¼ 2.7 L NH4eN et al. (2015)
treating diluted vinasse
and activated sludge
native bacteria
Synthetic wastewater
Chlorella spp. and Municipal wastewater Immobilized system 6 4.0e5.2 15 4.1 PO4eP 36 e e De-Bashan
Azospirillum brasilense (alginate beads), batch NO3eN et al. (2004)
mode, V ¼ 0.6 L 0.1e4.3 100
NH4eN

system which uses aeration process, the algae-bacteria symbiosis
saves more than 60% of the total energy spent in wastewater
treatment (Leong et al., 2019; Manirafasha et al., 2019). Moreover,
algae helps to mitigate the carbon footprint by capturing the CO2
emits from the bacterial activity, at the same time supplying
enough oxygen via photosynthesis to the bacteria for the bio-
degrading of organic pollutants. Additionally, it could also enhance
the overall uptake of nutrients during the cooperative interactions
between the algae and bacteria symbiosis (Zhang et al., 2020).
A study by Ganeshkumar et al. (2018) has showed that the algal-
based bioenergy production is more environmental and econom-
ical sustainable due to the new cultivation system of microalgae
utilizing excess nutrient from various kinds of wastewater. In the
studies, they discussed the algae efficiency in removing nutrients
and production of lipids with Chlorella sp. cultivated in mixed
wastewater from piggery and winery (Alam and Wang, 2019). The
end results revealed that the wastewater mixture is a more com-
mercial way for bioremediation and can produced biomass with a
high percentage of biofuel yield. Besides, this technology using
wastewater as the nutrients source for algae cultivation does not
require any agriculture land or fresh water which is an added
benefit for food crops. Numerous studies have shown promising
result for the nutrients removal by microalgal-bacterial consortia
from various wastewater streams, though further investigation on
this symbiotic relationship is needed for the improvement of
culturing conditions in commercial scale units. Table 7 assesses the
removal efficiency of nutrients for various types of microorganism.
3.4. Waste and recycling rates
Algae require nutrients to grow and huge amount of nutrients is
needed in the cultivation of algae, however, most of the nutrients
added goes to waste. In the study by Sandia National Laboratories
(2015), the economic models states that by replacing only 10% of
liquid transportation fuels with algal-based fuels, even though it is
advantageous to the environment in many ways, it could require
twice the fertilizer, thus would increases the food price. In order to
reduce nutrients pollution and mitigate fertilizer run-off such as
nitrogen and phosphate into waterbodies or air after the biofuel
production, it is necessary to recover and reuse nutrients to avoid
serious consequences like eutrophication. Similarly, recycling ni-
trogen and phosphate has advantages that go far beyond cost. By
recycling the P and N, it can replace the high cost artificial nitrogen
8
fixation process using natural gas and atmospheric nitrogen.
One possibility is to recover N and P from the non-fuel fraction
of the produced microalgae biomass followed by the recycle to the
cultivation system which forms a closed-loop perspective (Barbera
et al., 2018). In regards to this, since microalgae consist only a small
amount of these elements in the oil fraction, it is possible to recover
N and P from the biomass and recycled, thus reducing the net nu-
trients amount input (Barbera et al., 2018). Nevertheless, when
nutrients are recovered from the biomass, it is not recommended to
recycle them straight to the cultivation system due to the possible
toxicity effects due to the bio-availability and utilization efficiency
of the nutrients, hence proper process evaluations and strategies
for recycling recovered nutrients need to be carry out.
According to Barbera et al. (2018), there are mainly two types of
recycling options which are: i) direct nutrients recycling and ii)
precipitation of nutrients as minerals. Although the first option
have promising results, a couple of downsides have been noticed,
such as the need of heavy dilutions which is impractical in large
scale processes, deterring growth of microalgae due to the presence
of toxic compounds, high concentration of organic matter which
could lead to high risk of bacterial contamination, possible low bio-
availability of nitrogen when non-mixotrophic algal species are
employed. Therefore, the second recycling option suggested by
Barbera et al. (2018) is preferred to overcome the problem stated
above which is by precipitating the inorganic nutrients from the
aqueous phase in the hydrothermal treatments, thus collecting
mineral salts to be recycled as fertilizers.
During the hydrothermal algae-to-fuel conversion, the inor-
ganic salts that precipitated suggested the possibility of nutrient
recycling to the cultivation system is high. The end result shows
that the composition of the mineral salt recovered by using various
algal feedstocks have a high P content, along with S, Fe, Mg and Ca
which suggested that phosphate were the main precipitated ele-
ments. Additionally, the nitrogen recovered are 4% together with
35% of C as carbonates. Bagnoud-Vela
squez et al. (2015) has sug-
gested that the salt separation and subsequent gasification carried
out on the aqueous phase through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL)
would enhances the process performances in terms of nutrients
and energy management.
3.5. Algae contribution on the soil quality
Soil quality is also one of the major aspects in developing a green
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al. Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322

city. Food security and nutrients are fundamental to ensure that the
increasing population have enough food and supplements to
maintain a good quality of life. Therefore, it is essential that cities
practice safe and sustainable agriculture to achieve environmental
sustainability. Algal biomass can supply sustainable feedstocks
which can be beneficial in practicing sustainable agriculture and
industry. After the extraction of lipids and carbohydrates to convert
algae feedstock to biofuels is finished, the spent biomass can be
further processed to various ways such as feed or bio fertilizer. This
algae bio-fertilizer is capable of enhancing the soil phyco-chemical
characteristics such as mineral nutrient enhancement. Moreover,
treated water from wastewater treatment can be utilized in agri-
culture for irrigation. Algae can also generate a chemical known as
aminolevulinic acid (ALA) that can be useful in various fields such
as agriculture by acting as natural herbicide, insecticide, and a
growth factor promoter for plants.
Biochar is defined as a recalcitrant organic carbon compound
and it is produced when biomass is heated to temperature between
300 and 1000  C under limited oxygen supply or sometimes zero
concentration (Yu et al., 2017). Under batch processing conditions,
wet algal biomass can be converted to algae biochar at a normal
thermal condition in a short period of time (Lam et al., 2012).
Different algal feedstock will produce different composition of
biochar due to the diverse algae species. For example, microalgal
biochar have big aggregates with irregular porosity, whereas
lignocellulose biochar is different from that after both of it un-
dergoes thermal decomposition. Lignocellulose biochar has a high
surface area and contain high amount of carbon, but a lower cation
exchange than that of algal biochar. In short, this makes algal bio-
char great as soil amendment in agriculture because it contains
high concentration of nutrients such as nitrogen, ash and inorganic
elements and it could also provide more balanced acidity of soil due
to the high pH level it has. It also has a unique characteristic which
is it can store carbon in long term in soil amendment.
In the biochar technology, the CO2 is being captured via
photosynthesis and then go through a series of conversion pro-
cesses for example pyrolysis to form biochar. However, this
particular technology is quite different from the other biomass
energy production because it is a carbon negative technology.
According to the International Biochar Initiative, it is predicted that
biochar holds great potential in reducing the climate crisis such as
global warming and greenhouse effect by supplying 3.67 Gt CO2 per
annum using only biomass wastes. Besides that, biochar is able to
sequester up to 12% of the GHGs from the smog polluted cities
hence mitigate the GHGs emission rate (Yu et al., 2017). Further-
more, biochar are also great as bio-adsorbent to bioremediate
organic or inorganic pollutants when implemented in wastewater
treatment due to its abundance of organic functional groups and
inorganic minerals. Numerous studies have showed that micro-
algae is suitable for this technology due to its biosorption capacity
which is supported by a high quantity of functional groups, this
results the microalgae biochar to develop physic-chemical features
that could increase the effectiveness in the adsorption of organic
contaminants.
3.6. Algae contribution on the green-space ratio
Green space ratio is also essential for sustainable development
and climate change adaptation. With the increased greening ac-
tivities in cities, it can have a direct impact on the people’s quality of
life and the public health. Inventions like algae façade helps to
reduce the carbon emissions by CO2 sequestration and also releases
oxygen into the smog-polluted air (Lo ~hmus and Balbus, 2015). The
microalgae are normally cultivated in ta flat-panel or a tubular PBR
in the façade system (Talaei et al., 2020). Microalgae bio-adaptive
façades can provide adaptive shading and acts as thermal in-
sulators, solar thermal collectors, and light-to-biomass convertors
which are required for biodiesel production (Talaei et al., 2020). In a
study by Pruvost et al. (2016) indicates that the energy exchange
between the building and the photobioreactors can adjust the
thermal loads in both subsystems, thus preventing the PBRs from
being overheated during the summer by filtering the thermal loads.
This symbiosis also does not have an effect on the biomass growth
and will not causes decrease in the efficiency in the system. Al
Dakheel and Tabet Aoul (2017) concluded that with the integra-
tion of PV- and solar collector-integrated shading device in the
algae façade system, it offers dual benefits to the building’s shading
and electricity. The façade also aids the building by serving

Fig. 2. Schematic thermal performance of PBR façade.

9
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al. Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322

functions such as wastewater treatment, heat dissipation and the
production of co-products. Microalgae in the façade will undergoes
photosynthesis to convert light into biomass and heat, hence
generating biomass which can further converting it to biogas in a
hydrothermal process. Other than biogas, algal biomass can also be
the source to many types of energy including biodiesel, hydrogen,
ethanol, and syngas. Fig. 2 illustrate a schematic process regards to
the potential PBR façade for green cities using algae.
Nevertheless, this microalgae façade is a revolutionary approach
in tackling global climate crisis as it changes the prospective of a
convectional building into a vertical energy-producing factory, but
it still faces numerous complications in terms of the algal biofuel
production. Until this day, there is only one real-scale experiment
that is been conducted in Hamburg, Germany called the BIQ house.
In order to generate biofuel and electricity, it is pivotal that the
building accommodating the PBR system have a functional bio-
refinery infrastructure which pose a difficult task (Talaei et al.,
2020). There is a building service control in the centre of the
microalgae PBR circuit which separates the biomass from the me-
dium by an algae separator and a municipal sewage system that
collect the wastewater in the BIQ house (Talaei et al., 2020). Other
than that, the excess heat generated by the microalgae feedstock
can be utilized to supply the heat exchanger which heats the water
and the underfloor, whereas the rest will be kept in geothermal
borehole wells. Lastly, the energy generated will be relocated to the
city due to the technology restriction in the residential segment
and some illegal issues. Table 8 show several experiments on
microalgae PBR façades in different countries.
4. Incorporate challenges that arise from using algal
resources
4.1. High productivity cost
Even though algal resources have promising benefits, it is still
quite underdeveloped with the current advance technology. One of
the major challenges faced from using algae is the high production
cost and low cost efficiency due to the expensive operating fees in
cultivation, harvesting and algae processing (Mat Aron et al., 2020;
Vassilev and Vassileva, 2016). For instance, extra cost is required in
preventing the wild algae from contaminating the cultivation sys-
tem during cultivation. With the help of genomics, scientist can
easily derive renewable energy sources from cyanobacteria,
microalgae and lignocellulosic biomass to produce biofuel that are
both economic and environmentally sustainable. Although micro-
algae are considered as the most promising resource, they need
higher production cost compared to the other two options. Ligno-
cellulosic bioethanol process have a cheaper production cost, but it
consumes large amount of energy for pre-treatments which in-
cludes costly enzymes (Chia et al., 2018; Khoo et al., 2020b). All of

Table 8
Evaluation on microalgae PBR façades (Talaei et al., 2020).

Location Methods Type of PBR Findings PBRs thermal function

Germany (Hamburg) Real-Scale
Experimentation
U.S.A (North Carolina) Simulation and
Experimentation
U.S.A (Lincoln) Experimentation
Vertical flat-panel
PBRs energy-generating per Solar thermal, Shading
bioreactor m2

Biomass production 15 g TS/
m2/day (900 kg/year)

Energy production in
biomass 345 kJ/m2/day

Biogas production from
biomass 10.20 L methane/
m2/day
Vertical flat-panel
The vision zone needs two- Thermal insulation,
bioreactor layered acrylic panelling to Shading
provide sufficient insulation
value and thermal comfort.

Vision zone can light the
perimeter zone of interior
space without any artificial
lighting.
Vertical tubular bioreactor
Increasing in microalgae Shading
culture density results in
decreasing light penetration
and internal luminance.

Poor relationship between
culture density and shading
efficiency

Table 9
Techno-economic analysis of energy input and output, net energy, costs, and revenue for four different scenarios (Ventura et al., 2013).

Techno-economic analysis studies *Scenario 1 *Scenario 2 *Scenario 3 *Scenario 4

Energy input (kWh/yr) 778,420 861,886 576,798 1,130,190

Net energy (kWh/yr) 76,760 842,920 540,950 1,282,420
Capital cost ($/yr) 45,243 52,174 44,013 44,313
Operation Cost ($/yr) 504,309 505,868 462,400 473,082
Net costs ($/yr) 690,150 648,414 744,936 658,774
Net CO2 production (ton/yr) 915.52 381.68 460.87 1315.64
CO2 removal/ton algae (ton CO2/ton) 0.92 0.38 0.46 1.32
CO2 removal cost ($/ton CO2) 753.84 1698.86 1616.37 500.73

*Scenarios: (1) Microalgal cultivation for biodiesel production and CO2 bio-mitigation; (2) Microalgal cultivation for biodiesel production and CO2 bio-mitigation, integrated
with anaerobic digestion of biomass residuals after lipid extraction; (3) Microalgal cultivation for biogas production and CO2 bio-mitigation (4) Microalgal cultivation for mixed
gas (i.e., supercritical gasification); production and CO2 bio-mitigation.

10
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
them require high initial capital investment and the results show
that the production of algal-based biofuel will not be commercially
practical, and it is depending on the other economics options.
However, it is discovered that algal residues can be utilized via
biorefinery technology. With this approach, the process economics
can be enhanced which now makes algae biofuels more economi-
cally viable than lignocellulosic bioethanol. A comprehensive
evaluation on the technoeconomic analysis are reviewed based on a
detailed literature study by Ventura et al. (2013) for four different
scenarios in Table 9.
It is commonly known that capturing of CO2 via algal-based
biomass accumulation without value added utilization of the
algal biomass is economically unviable. Commercially speaking, the
CO2 removal costs about $500 to $1690 per ton of CO2. All the cost
factors for each scenario has similar energy input and capital and
operation costs for algae cultivation and harvest. This shows that
the variations in overall CO2 removal costs were because of the
post-harvest process. In Scenario 4, it had the highest energy input
as well as the highest energy output. The net costs for the four
scenarios range from $650 to $745 per year for 1000 dry tons of
algae plant. The high emission of carbon dioxide in the anaerobic
digestion process and the biogas combustion were accountable for
the costly CO2 removal costs in Scenarios 3 and 4. This substantially
decreases the net CO2 removal, thus increasing the unit CO2
removal cost up to 100e300% than Scenarios 1 and 4. Nevertheless,
these expenses are quite costly as compared with conventional
chemical and physical process.
4.2. Comprehensive evaluation on the life cycle assessment of algae
biomass
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has a pivotal role in evaluating
various environmental effects in the process of conversion from
biomass to biofuels. According to Chia et al. (2018), different kind of
cultivation system will have different net energy consumption and
the comparative energy LCA is concluded using various cultivation
methods such as open or closed system and the kind of PBRs used.
Furthermore, when the energy of microalgae biomass generated by
open pond is larger than the energy consumed by the system, this
means that the net energy ratio (NER) is more than 1. Fig. 3 revealed
the life cycle assessment of algae in biodiesel production.
The open pond and flat-plate PBR have a NER of more than one
and are considered as economically viable, whereas the horizontal
Fig. 3. Life cycle assessment of algae in biodiesel production.
11
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
tubular PBR has a NER value of less than one (Chia et al., 2018).
Additionally, the production of algae derived biofuel has a lower
emission rate of GHGs than that of the commercial fuel production.
Similarly, open pond is discovered to emits a lower rate of GHGs
than PBR since not all algae biomass will be converted to biodiesel,
in fact most of the biomass might go through anaerobic digestion.
As a result, algae-derived biofuels are more eco-friendly than
conventional fuels with respect to LCA. However, it is not suitable to
be applied in large scale cultivation because it is economically
impractical. Moreover, production of biogas stands out because it is
more economically viable compared to biodiesel or bioethanol. This
is because during the production of biogas, all algal biomass is
utilized, whereas biodiesel and bioethanol production only uses
specific components such as lipids and carbohydrates. As a result, it
is more expensive for biodiesel or bioethanol production because it
requires pre-treatments prior to extract the lipids and carbohy-
drates which are needed to produce biofuels. In a study by Jard et al.
(2013), it summarised that biogas production is not far to
commercialization. Additionally, another study revealed that
biogas production from algae is able to decease the GHGs emissions
rate and have more energy security benefits than the others liquid
fuels (Campbell et al., 2009).
On the other hand, a previous study by Kadam (2001) shows
that by utilizing the flue gases from fossil fuel powered electricity
production to provide CO2 and combustion of algal biomass with
coal for electricity production suggest promising result for power
generation. Moreover, Lardon et al. (2009) revealed that algae
require high energy cost in the cultivation, harvesting, and oil
extraction as compared to more conventional fuels production. A
study by Batan et al. (2010) found out that in a pond-to-pump
system boundary, the NER value for the production of algal-based
biofuel is lower than 0.93, suggesting a barely net positive energy
balance. The study also concluded that the net GHG emission are
similar to the one for soy biodiesel and looks promising than that of
traditional diesel. This statement was supported by Sander and
Murthy (2010) whom observed a NER value of larger than 1
through a series of analyses, and the emission rate of GHG both
larger and smaller than those for traditional diesel subject to the
various algae processing methods. Furthermore, Jorquera et al.
(2010) evaluated the production of algal biomass without
including the process of extraction, separation or refining of biofuel
and concluded that cultivation in both open ponds and flat panels
PBR shows positive NER values. In contrast, a similar study by
Claren et al. (2010) observed that even though algae cultivation
utilized the nutrients in wastewater, the energy consumption,
emission rate of GHG and water use is much higher than for corn,
canola and switchgrass feedstock. This study also concluded that
with different combination of algal-based biofuel production in-
tegrated with the wastewater nutrients, a net NER value was
evaluated and revealed that algae has a lower land use impact than
terrestrial feedstocks. Besides that, Yang et al. (2011) analysed the
life-cycle water and nutrients consumption of microalgae biofuel
production. In order to produce 1 kg of microalgae biofuel, it re-
quires 3726 kg of water given that freshwater is used without
recycling. The results suggested that the life cycle of freshwater can
be decreased to around 90% by utilizing seawater or wastewater.
Nonetheless, even with the wastewater and seawater as the culture
medium or recycling the harvest water, the cultivation system still
requires a substantial amount of freshwater which is around 400 kg
per kg of biofuel. Other than that, the study also observed the life-
cycle usages of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, and
sulphur are 0.33, 0.71, 0.58, 0.27, and 0.15 kg per kg of biofuel,
respectively, without recycling the harvested water; but when
recycling the harvest water, it is found that all the nutrients usage
reduced by half which is about 55%. Moreover, the utilization of
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
wastewater for algae cultivation could reduce the usage of N by 94%
and do not require potassium, magnesium, and sulphur.
4.3. Availability and accessibility of sustainable algae resources
Due to the indefinite availability of sustainable algae resources
for biofuel production, it could have serious side effects on the
environment when converting the algae resources from natural
ecosystem to renewable energy sources. Until now, the data avail-
ability to explore the full potential of algae is limited, hence the
research on large scale algae cultivation is constrained by it.
Therefore, in order to prevent these side effects, the exploitation of
algae potential in native water ecosystems should remain as it is
without interruption to a maximum extent. For example, Vassilev
and Vassileva (2016) stated that scientist should focus more on
the aquatic phytomass such as the non-edible natural algae and the
specifically cultivated non-edible algae. In addition, the lack of
technological equipment and well managed practices of the algae-
derived biofuels is also one of the barriers. On top of that, there is
some complication with large scale cultivation by using macroalgae
due to their complex structure and time-consuming growth rate as
well as lower lipid content compared to microalgae. In spite of this,
it is concluded that macroalgae is easier to harvest compared to
microalgae.
4.4. Disturbance of the ecosystem balance
Large scale algae cultivation could possibly cause harmful toxic
bloom or sometimes known as eutrophication which is mainly
caused by the emission of nutrients. This phenomenal can have a
detrimental effect on the entire food chain and the biodiversity
because the toxins are capable of travelling up to the highest con-
sumer through aquatic species and compromise the whole
ecosystem. Moreover, non-toxic algae bloom can also indirectly
impact the marine life. It can put a stop to photosynthesis when it is
blocking the sunlight penetration to the aquatic living organism
under the sea, thus suffocating them from hypoxia, low level of
oxygen (Usher et al., 2014). Besides that, by-product such as
ground-level ozone which are one of the smog factors could form
harmful chemicals like airborne nitrogen oxides and it can travel
several miles from the urban to rural areas by wind. It will endanger
the animals and kill the plants, at the same time jeopardized the
forest and the environment. On top of that, the use of genetically
modified organisms in the algae cultivation or biofuel production
can create a spread in their natural habitats, causing mutation and
disease which will threaten the ecosystem indirectly (Vassilev and
Vassileva, 2016).
Table 10
Summary of different SDGs purposes.
SDG’s number SDG’s call to action
2 End hunger, achieve food security & improved nutrition, promote
sustainable agriculture
6 Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and
sanitation for all
7 Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy
for all
13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
12
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
5. Sustainable development goals for algae utilization in
green city
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 tar-
gets from the United Nations (UN) where the main objective is to
put a stop in poverty and inequality, and ensure that the Earth is a
better and sustainable living place for all (ElFar et al., 2020). All
countries need to cooperate for making a difference for every in-
dividual in achieving a greater, greener and peaceful future by
2030. With algae utilization, it is one step closer to accomplish the
SDGs and a huge step forwards in the development of algae green
cities. Below shows the 4 SDGs that will have a significant change
after the utilization in the green cities. Table 10 summarise the
purposes for different SDGs.
One of the most relevant aspects of SDG 2 is to ensure sus-
tainable agriculture, increasing the productivity of agricultural
lands and promoting healthy personal eating habits for every per-
son. Algal biomass offers a sustainable feedstock which is advan-
tageous for sustainable agriculture and industry. Sustainable
agriculture entails preserving agricultural land for agricultural
production while maintaining soil fertility (Manirafasha et al.,
2019). Algae biochar can act as a soil amendment to improve the
soil quality and at the same time promote the growth of the food
crop. With this biochar technology, food security can be achieved,
and people can obtain more balanced diet while maintaining a
heathier lifestyle. It is also crucial to have well-organized and
sustainable management of land resources to ensure a stable future
development of agriculture and the bioeconomic. Moreover, algal-
derived product can be beneficial to the human wellbeing when
they are consumed in their raw states for instance, Spirulina and
Chlorella powders or in tablets form (Manirafasha et al., 2019). For
Chlorella, which is also known as a detoxifying agent, it contains
high concentration of nutrients such as chlorophyll, lutein, beta-
carotene and Vitamin E (Suchern et al., 2020). These nutrients are
known for their health benefits like boosting the immune system,
providing anti-tumour immunity and helps to reduce the oxidative
stress (Tang et al., 2020). Besides that, as a sustainable feed re-
sources, algae are also capable of replacing conventional feed due to
its excellent nutrient composition. They are proven to be a potential
animal and fish feed for the improvement in the growth of animals
in terms of fertility weight gaining and healthy diet. More precisely,
algae can offer several nutrients and biological active biomolecules
content such as highs, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, min-
erals, and pigments sources that meets all the nutritional and
growth requirement as a resource for animal feed. For example,
when animals consumed Spirulina and Chlorella, the end results
shows that the overall health and the metabolism of that particular
animal is significantly improved due to the nutrient richness
Purposes
Ensure sustainable agriculture, increasing the productivity
of agricultural lands and promoting healthy personal eating
habits for every person.
Helps to solve water cleanliness and aid the perpetual need
for an efficient solution to remove municipal and industrial
waste in the water before releasing the treated water into
the environment.
Strengthen the national economy, enhancing energy
security and at the same time boosts the industrial
development in the cities.
Removal of carbon dioxide and the mitigation of GHGs
emission rate which can be overcome with the utilization of
algae in every city.
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
possessed by algae animal feed (Manirafasha et al., 2019). In fact,
there are more health benefits besides nutrition which is building
immune defence, induce pharmacological and biological activities
such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory (Khoo et al., 2021). In
short, algal resources are great as supplement conventional in-
gredients in fish and animal feed.
SDG 6 ensure availability and sustainable management of water
and sanitation for all (Khoo et al., 2020d; Leal Filho et al., 2020). The
discharge of untreated effluent poses a huge treat to the water
cleanliness that is being used by the public especially in low- or
middle-income families. By integrating algae in the wastewater
treatment, it can help to solve these issues and aid the perpetual
need for an efficient solution to remove municipal and industrial
waste in the water before releasing the treated water into the
environment. Microalgae wastewater treatment offers a more
economical approach so that all cities can have access to clean
water which will greatly improve the overall hygiene of the com-
munity and at the same time reduces the spreading of infectious
diseases such as cholera. The algal and bacteria symbiosis replace
the costly aeration phase and it releases extra oxygen and capture
CO2 during the process. Besides that, algae can also act as a bio-
sorbent to remove heavy metals such as zinc from industrial
wastewater.
SDG 7 emphasize on strengthening the national economy,
enhancing energy security and at the same time boosts the in-
dustrial development in the cities. Algal biomass plays a key role in
providing green energy in the process of biofuels production. It is
considered as a promising sustainable feedstock due to their high
growth speed and productivity and high photosynthetic efficiency
(Yaşar, 2018). With this technology, carbon dioxide is captured and
converted into biomass during the growth of algae. Despite there
are some implications, algae cultivation is still economically viable
as they can be cultured easily in various habitats or waterbodies
such as reservoirs, rivers, oceans and closed-loop networks. By
using wastewater as nutrients source, it can greatly reduce the
production cost in the cultivation system and at the same time
offers a more affordable, cleaner biofuel to the public.
As for SDG 13, global climate crisis needed to be taken seriously
and should be the focus of every cities to achieve environmental
sustainability (Leal Filho et al., 2020). The action that needs to be
done includes the removal of carbon dioxide and the mitigation of
GHGs emission rate which can be achieved with the utilization of
algae in every city. Algae application such as algae-based fuels can
sequestrate the atmospheric carbon dioxide, hence reducing the
greenhouse effect and decreasing the air pollution. The fuels also
emit oxygen as by-product which helps the city to achieve a low
carbon economy. With this cleaner and renewable bioenergy, it
tackles the environmental issues and ecological scarcities.
One of the major challenges is the costly operation fee of algae-
based biofuel production (Gupta et al., 2017). To overcome this
challenge, more effective and innovative ways need to be devel-
oped to utilize the wastewater and flue gas. The cost could be cut
down if the cost of raw materials can be reduced by implementing
the recovery of CO2 (Kadam, 2001). Moreover, high efficiency can
also reduce the cost significantly and can be enhanced by
improving the technology and the rise in economic interest from
microalgal bio-refining. For instance, algae strain that have high
performance and effective cultivation method could increase the
biomass productivity. The conversion of biomass into high-value
product such as vitamins and pharmaceutical drugs can comple-
ment the high operation cost. The residues and waste, for example
N and P can be recycled to reduce the cost. Nonetheless, other
complications like strain selection and its isolation can also sub-
stantially affect the CO2 bio-fixation of microalgae. This could be
done by having breakthroughs in the microalgal strain re-
13
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
construction in bioprospecting genetic engineering (Sharma and
Singh, 2017). For the improvement in the microalgal biodiesel
production, algal strain with high lipid content or by increasing the
lipid content in the algae can be selected. The condition and the
growth rate of the algae strains can be enhanced to have a higher
biomass yield in either open pond or closed systems. Although
biodiesel is proven to be more environmentally sustainable than
diesel fuel, the eco-compatibility of biodiesel will be determined by
the mode of production and trade (Sharma and Singh, 2017). With
an advance engineering, it can significantly affect the algal biodiesel
production.
6. Future outlook and challenges of algae utilization
The vision is to recreate green cities all around the globe, making
them increasingly functional and liveable, at the same time open up
various new sustainable employment and economic opportunities.
In terms of the outlook of an algae green city, it is imperative to
utilize the algae fully by advancing the cutting edge green
technologies-based on microalgae that has been mentioned before
and be integrated aesthetically into evolving cityscapes.
6.1. Algal-powered buildings
Buildings are accountable for the large portion of energy usage
in the total energy consumption of the city. In order to achieve
sustainability, the algae green city will have algae-powered build-
ings that integrate microalgae as the photobioreactor-based source
of biofuel, hence transforming into a high-performance architec-
ture. The building façade plays a crucial role in diminishing cooling
loads and improving the thermal comfort (Talaei et al., 2020). Inside
the façade, the algae will go through photosynthesis to produce
oxygen, heat and biomass with the presence of sunlight. In a related
study, the microalgae could also obtain nutrients from the waste-
water generated by the building and capture the CO2 released by
the boiler at the same time providing oxygen. It also concluded that
the algae façade can utilize the heat produced from PBRs providing
hot water and heating to the building, mitigating the energy usage
under the threshold of 48 kWh/m2/year of the Paris Climate Plan
(Wong et al., 2010). The biomass produced will be converted into
biogas in the reactor to provide more energy for the buildings.
According to a recent research, the biomass can produced up to
7.6 Wh/ft2 day and the heat produced 38.2 Wh/ft2 day (Chang et al.,
2017). With this algae façade, it can improve the overall aesthetic of
the city landscapes and beautifying the built environment as well
as increasing investment opportunity or even promotes the tourism
in the cities. Moreover, the building can also enhance the energy
efficiency, reduce the temperature fluctuation and decrease the
carbon footprint. One example is the Bio-Intelligent Quotient
House which is the world’s first ever algae powered building. This
building is designed by the international design firm Arup, Ger-
many’s SSC Strategic Science Consultants together with Austria’s
Splitterwerk Architects to create a sustainable building (Wilkinson
et al., 2017). The concept behind this design is the bio-adaptive
algae façade that not only providing control over the needed
amount for solar shading, but it also traps solar thermal heat and
biomass that can be exploited to generate heat and supply energy
to power the entire building (Talaei et al., 2020). However, the main
objective of the design is only focusing on the adaptation of the
bioreactor façade, further research needs to be conducted and the
uncertainty of the feasibility is still debatable due to lack of system
performance and total expenses of the algae building technology.
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
6.2. Algal-powered lamps
Algal-powered lamps will also be integrated in the algae green
city. This lamp is lighted up by an algae species called di-
noflagellates which can emit a strong blue light at night when
shaken or being stimulated. This phenomenon is known as biolu-
minescence. This algae have two components that are needed for
the light production which are an enzyme called Luciferase and a
molecule generated during photosynthesis called luciferin (Ejlsted,
2018). When the algae are disturbed by a stimulant, a cascade of
chain reaction will be triggered causing the lowering of the pH
level. The pH drops activate the luciferase enzymes that are bonded
to the luciferin molecules. Both molecules undergo oxidation and
energy are transferred from luciferase to luciferin (Ejlsted, 2018).
Lastly, the energy released from the luciferin are the blue light that
are observable with our bare eyes. These algae can be cultivated in a
closed tight container which are capable of functioning as a bio-
logical lamp or a lightbulb to brighten out homes, buildings, streets,
and even the whole city. However, until now, the bioluminescent
algae are only in the first stage of the development, and there is still
some complication for example, in order to produce light, the algae
need to be stimulated into motion which is challenging to over-
come. Other than that, they can only lighten up for a short amount
of time due to the energy limitations (Ejlsted, 2018).
6.3. Waste management
The algae green city will have a sustainable waste management
in order to develop a self-sufficient system. The system will be
including generation, collection and disposal. Waste management
is considered as a part in the system and to have a more sustainable
society, the conventional waste management which lacks of long
term thinking has to be replaced with something more sophisti-
cated (Seadon, 2010). In the green algae city, wastewater from in-
dustrial and municipal will be collected in the public channel
network, and with microalgae wastewater treatment, in particular
in the aeration system, the removal of pollutant and organic ma-
terial will be performed by consortia of microalgae and bacteria
instead of just bacteria and the oxygen provided by the aeration
tank. It has been proven that microalgae which can remove nitro-
gen and phosphorus effectively shows promising result in tertiary
Fig. 4. The process of microalgae wastewater treatment.
14
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
treatment and comply with the strict regulations regarding the
release of micropollutants and pathogens (Wang et al., 2016). In
fact, by utilizing the wastewater with microalgae it can also be
cultivated by the composition of the wastewater that is similar to
the algae culture mixture that promotes microbial growth. None-
theless, a related study shows that although microalgae can be
integrated in wastewater treatment, they are unable to replace the
conventional treatment completely (Wang et al., 2016). Besides
that, huge amount of biomass can be produced from the treatment
and can be utilized for the biogas production in the conventional
anaerobic digesters which can helps to reduce the energy con-
sumption. Furthermore, microalgae wastewater treatment can also
mitigate the GHGs emission thus decreasing the global warming
effect. Fig. 4 demonstrates the process of microalgae for the
wastewater treatment.
6.4. Transportation
Transportation has always been a pivotal part in developing a
city, it helps the community to communicate with each other and
trade information as well as other form of exchange and in turn
establish civilisation. However, with the ever-growing population,
the global transportation fleet has increase in surge which con-
tributes to the release of CO2 and GHGs emission. By integrating
algae in the transport system, for instance, replacing the diesel fuel
with algal-based fuel that has been recognized as the third-
generation biofuel and has the potential to release cleaner by-
products, at the same time capture CO2 in the atmosphere. More-
over, algae green city will have sustainable mass transit, which can
reduces the usage of vehicles, and subsequently offers a more safer
alternative for the environment (Abdallah, 2017; Mat Aron et al.,
2020). Other than that, it also has multiple advantages for
example, with algal-based biodiesel, it lowers the dependence on
foreign oil and creates urban centres of productivity. Besides, the
quantity of oil require for each passenger can be reduced when the
city practice sustainable mass transit by replacing a portion of the
standard fossil fuel with algal-based biodiesel in buses, train or
even planes. With the better quality of the public mass transit
options, there is a greater opportunity and incentive for people to
look beyond conventional car use.
Recent studies show that the algal-based biodiesel is already
K.W. Chew, K.S. Khoo, H.T. Foo et al.
being recognized globally and there are even some algae powered
vehicles that offers promising results. For instance, in 2009, Toyota
released the plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius, called Algaeus which runs
on a 5% blend of algae fuel (Darcy Bonfils, 2009). In Japan, the
government are considering to develop a fleet of buses powered by
algal oil which can promotes environmental sustainability (Vyas,
2017). Moreover, the United Airlines has introduced the first ever
algae-powered passenger flight from Chicago to Houston that uses
a blend of petroleum-based jet fuel and aviation biofuel made from
algal-oil in 2011. The blend consists of 60% of petroleum and 40% of
algae oil which refined into algae-based biofuel and it did not need
a change to the aircraft of the engine (Vyas, 2017). These advances
shows that algae and its components has already been utilized in
our transportation medium and further expansion to other appli-
cation is in progress.
7. Conclusions
Microalgae have proven to offer great potential for exploitation,
although we can benefit a lot from it, there is still some hurdles
from realising the undisputed potential provided by algae. There-
fore, critical studies need to be conducted in regards to the algal
species and the biomass production concerning algae technology.
Careful assessment of the energy balances and quality standards
would also need to be carried out to avoid any severe consequence
in achieving a self-sufficient eco city, where technical skills and
technological progress are also required. The industries and com-
panies from different fields also have to work together to maximize
the benefits of the available resources and the full exploitation of
advantages offered by the algae to overcome the pressing climate
crisis. With these innovative and sustainable approaches, algal re-
sources can be integrated into the human quality of life and benefits
everyone, while the collaboration between the researchers and
stakeholders from all around the world will endorse the mutual
exchange of information in algae exploitation, hence promoting
green cities growth. Without a proper planned urbanization, citi-
zens will continue to live in polluted cities, experience tangled
traffic daily and be exposed to toxic air as part of the consequences.
The decision to act sustainably and realising the concept of algae
green city is vital to enable all citizens to gain access to a better
quality of life as well as enhance the city’s positive dynamic.
Through this, shared prosperity and social stability will be created
without compromising the environment, leading to a carbon
neutral world for all.
Credit author statement
Kit Wayne Chew: Conceptualization, Siew Shee Lim and Hui
Thung Foo: Validation, Kit Wayne Chew, Kuan Shiong Khoo and Hui
Thung Foo: Data Curation, Kit Wayne Chew and Hui Thung Foo:
Writing - Original Draft, Kit Wayne Chew, Kuan Shiong Khoo, Shir
Reen Chia, Rashmi Walvekar and Siew Shee Lim: Writing - Review
& Editing, Kit Wayne Chew, Kuan Shiong Khoo and Shir Reen Chia:
Visualization, Kit Wayne Chew and Siew Shee Lim: Supervision,
Rashmi Walvekar and Siew Shee Lim: Project administration.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Xiamen University Malaysia
15
Chemosphere 268 (2021) 129322
(Malaysia), for the facilities and resources provided for the
completion of this work. This work was supported by the Funda-
mental Research Grant Scheme, Malaysia [FRGS/1/2020/STG01/
UNIM02/5].
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