Perspective on enzymatic production of renewable hydrocarbon fuel using algal fatty acid photodecarboxylase from Chlorella variabilis NC64A: potentials and limitations

The rise in energy consumption and non-renewable fossil fuel depletion has sparked interest in finding more sustainable fuel alternatives. Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is a prime candidate to replace conventional hydrocarbon (HC) fuels as it is renewable and has a high calorific value. However, the existing processes to convert vegetable oil to HVO involve extreme operating conditions and expensive metal catalysts. Recently, photodecarboxylase derived from Chlorella variabilis NC64A (CvFAP) has demonstrated great potential to convert fatty acid (FA) to renewable HC fuel in the presence of blue light. This is a simple one-step process that does not form any intermediates. This review summarized the findings related to CvFAP-catalyzed renewable HC fuel production, including the catalytic mechanism and challenges in scale-up and commercialization. Current studies have demonstrated great potential to produce renewable HC fuel from FA using CvFAP.