The development of alternative pathways for sustainable fuel production is a crucial task for politics, industry and research, since the current use of fossil fuels contributes to resource depletion and climate change. Microalgae are a promising option, but the technology readiness level (TRL) is low and cannot compete economically with fossil fuels. Novel genetic engineering technologies are being investigated to improve productivity and reduce the cost of harvesting products extracted from or excreted by microalgae for fuel production. However, high resource efficiency and low costs alone are no guarantee that algae fuels will find their way into the market. Technologies must be accepted by the public to become valuable for society. Despite strong efforts in algae research and development, as well as political commitments at different scales to promote algae biofuels for transport sectors, little is known about public acceptance of this alternative transport fuel. Despite the advantages of algae technology, genetically engineered (GE) microalgae can be controversial in Europe due to risk perception. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the knowledge and views of European experts and stakeholders on the conditions and requirements for acceptability of GE microalgae for next generation biofuel production. The results of the survey-based study indicate that the majority of the respondents believe that GE algae biofuels could provide strong benefits compared to other fuels. The majority would choose to be final consumers of engineered algae biofuels, if there is clear evidence of their benefits and open communication of potential risks. They believe that closed production systems with high security standards and rigorous risk assessment should be applied to avoid unintended impacts on humans and nature. Some respondents, however, are not convinced about the need to alter natural occurring algae strains to increase productivity, arguing that there is a huge unexplored variety, and that the consequences of using genome editing are still unknown. This evaluation of the opinions held by European experts and stakeholders regarding GE algae biofuels provides valuable and differentiated insights, both for future research and for the development of feasible socio-technical algae systems for next generation biofuel production. The identified conditions and requirements for achieving public acceptability can support the (re-)design of this innovative technology and adaptation of the framework conditions towards the implementation of algae biofuels in Europe.

中文翻译：

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欧洲转基因藻类生物燃料的可接受性：专家和利益相关者的意见。

开发可持续燃料生产的替代途径是政治、工业和研究的一项关键任务，因为目前化石燃料的使用会导致资源枯竭和气候变化。微藻是一个很有前途的选择，但技术成熟度（TRL）很低，无法与化石燃料在经济上竞争。正在研究新的基因工程技术，以提高生产力并降低从微藻中提取或排泄用于燃料生产的产品的收获成本。然而，仅靠高资源效率和低成本并不能保证藻类燃料会进入市场。技术必须被公众接受才能对社会有价值。尽管在藻类研究和开发方面做出了巨大努力，以及在不同规模上为运输部门推广藻类生物燃料的政治承诺，公众对这种替代运输燃料的接受程度知之甚少。尽管藻类技术具有优势，但由于风险认知，基因工程 (GE) 微藻在欧洲可能存在争议。因此，本研究的目的是首次调查欧洲专家和利益相关者对 GE 微藻在下一代生物燃料生产中可接受性的条件和要求的知识和观点。基于调查的研究结果表明，大多数受访者认为，与其他燃料相比，GE 藻类生物燃料可以提供强大的优势。大多数人会选择成为工程藻类生物燃料的最终消费者，如果有明确的证据表明它们的好处和潜在风险的公开交流。他们认为，应采用具有高安全标准和严格风险评估的封闭生产系统，以避免对人类和自然的意外影响。然而，一些受访者不相信需要改变天然存在的藻类菌株以提高生产力，他们认为存在大量未开发的品种，并且使用基因组编辑的后果仍然未知。对欧洲专家和利益相关者对 GE 藻类生物燃料的意见的评估为未来的研究和为下一代生物燃料生产开发可行的社会技术藻类系统提供了有价值的和差异化的见解。