Marine algae are promising third-generation feedstocks for bioethanol production as they are fast growing, require minimal inputs, and do not compete for land. However, marine algae have complex cell walls which necessitate pretreatment prior to fermentation, and this represents a major component of the cost of bioethanol production. Standard pretreatment processes using acids are costly and generate hazardous waste streams. This study aims to develop an economic and environmentally friendly pretreatment process using ozonolysis for the marine algae Kappaphycus alvarezii and Gelidium amansii. Acid and ozone pretreatments were compared across the pretreatment, enzyme hydrolysis, and fermentation stages of bioethanol production. Acid pretreatment outperformed ozonolysis over the pretreatment and enzyme hydrolysis stages. However, it also generated as by-products the compounds 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) and levulinic acid (LA), which inhibited ethanol fermentation and reduced the efficiency of the process overall. Ozone pretreatment did not produce these inhibitory compounds, and as such outperformed acid pretreatment across the process as a whole. These results indicate the potential of ozonolysis as an economic and environmentally friendly pretreatment for the production of bioethanol from marine algae.

藻类生长迅速，需要最少的投入且不争夺土地，因此有望用于生产生物乙醇的第三代原料。然而，海藻具有复杂的细胞壁，这需要在发酵之前进行预处理，这代表了生物乙醇生产成本的主要组成部分。使用酸的标准预处理过程成本高昂，并且会产生有害废物流。这项研究的目的是开发一种使用臭氧分解技术对海藻Kappaphycus alvarezii和Gelidium amansii进行经济，环保的预处理工艺的方法。在生物乙醇生产的预处理，酶水解和发酵阶段对酸和臭氧预处理进行了比较。在预处理和酶水解阶段，酸预处理的性能优于臭氧分解。但是，它还产生了副产物5-羟甲基糠醛（5-HMF）和乙酰丙酸（LA），从而抑制了乙醇发酵并降低了整个过程的效率。臭氧预处理不会产生这些抑制性化合物，因此在整个过程中，其性能优于酸预处理。这些结果表明臭氧分解作为从海藻生产生物乙醇的经济和环境友好的预处理方法的潜力。