Algae biofuels may provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels; however, this technology must overcome a number of hurdles before it can compete in the fuel market and be broadly deployed. These challenges include strain identification and improvement, both in terms of oil productivity and crop protection, nutrient and resource allocation and use, and the production of co-products to improve the economics of the entire system. Although there is much excitement about the potential of algae biofuels, much work is still required in the field. In this article, we attempt to elucidate the major challenges to economic algal biofuels at scale, and improve the focus of the scientific community to address these challenges and move algal biofuels from promise to reality.

藻类生物燃料可能是化石燃料的可行替代品；然而，这项技术必须克服许多障碍，才能在燃料市场上竞争并得到广泛应用。这些挑战包括菌株识别和改进，无论是在石油生产力和作物保护、养分和资源分配和使用方面，还是在生产副产品以提高整个系统的经济性方面。尽管藻类生物燃料的潜力令人兴奋，但该领域仍有许多工作要做。在本文中，我们试图阐明大规模经济藻类生物燃料面临的主要挑战，并提高科学界对解决这些挑战的关注度，并将藻类生物燃料从承诺变为现实。