In the face of overwhelming evidence supporting the idea that anthropogenic climate change is real, The Paris Agreement, developed within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was a step forward in terms of hoping to alleviate some of the adverse effects of excess greenhouse gas (GHG). Therefore, both the global community and local governments, have begun to focus on utilizing renewable sources of energy and products traditionally derived from fossil fuels.
最年来，微藻作为帮助世界各国发展以生物可再生能源为基础的绿色经济体系的潜在原料而备受瞩目。中国作为世界的一员也表示“通过利用丰富多样的微藻来开发藻类生物精炼厂具有很大的前景”（Li et al.，2015）。如今，微藻生物质培养已被视为克服目前世界对化石燃料依赖的潜在途径。
Microalgae has recently attracted attention as a possible feedstock for helping countries develop a biorenewable based green economy. China, one such country, shows that it has great promise for developing algal biorefineries through exploiting its great abundance and diversity of microalgae (Li et al., 2015). Presently, microalgal biomass cultivation is regarded as a potential way to overcome our current reliance on fossil fuels.
生物质是一种有机物质，存储于生物体中。它是一种可再生，可储存，可灵活运用的燃料，目前的成熟技术可轻松将其转换为热能和电能，被人们视为很具有吸引力的命题。然而，为了设计出经济可行的生产生物质燃料的方法，同时也作为生物炼制概念的一部分，我们必须有效利用微藻生物质的所有成分（Hariskos＆Posten，2014）。这意味着除了能源外，还有更多有价值的产品将被生产和开发。
Biomass is an organic matter that was stored in living or recently living objects. It is a renewable source of energy, providing a storable, flexible fuel that can be readily converted to heat and/or electricity using existing well-established technologies, and is therefore an attractive proposition. However, in order to design an economically feasible production processes it is necessary, as part of the biorefinery concept, to utilize all constituents of the microalgal biomass (Hariskos & Posten, 2014). This means not just energy, but other more valuable products should be produced and harvested for consumers.
微藻可以产生大量类似ω-3油的长链脂肪酸。如二十二碳六烯酸（DHA）和二十碳五烯酸（EPA）。Omega 3是人体中不可缺少的营养素，可以帮助预防和控制心脏病。美国心脏协会进行的研究表明，ω-3脂肪酸可能有助于降低血压，降低甘油三酯，减缓动脉斑块的发展，降低心律异常的几率，从而减少心脏病发作的可能性。DHA作为婴儿配方奶粉的补充剂也有巨大的市场，特别是在亚洲，它被认为有助于儿童大脑发展。
Microalgae produces a great amount of long chain fatty acids such as omega-3 oils, examples of which are Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Omega 3 are essential nutrients that can help prevent and manage heart disease. Study conducted by the American Heart Association shows that omega-3 fatty acids may help to lower blood pressure, reduce triglycerides, slow the development of plaque in arteries and, reduce the chance of abnormal heart rhythm, hence reducing the likelihood of heart attack. There is also a huge market for DHA as a supplement for infant formula, especially in Asia, where it is thought to assist brain and cognitive development.
In addition, microalgal pigments, such as carotenoids, and proteins have considerable potential for many medical applications.
如今，随着技术发展的进步，我们能够从微藻中提取生物质以供多种使用。例如，一家在上海设立分部的日本公司Euglena主要研发和销售从眼虫（一种微藻类）中提取的营养液和质粒。他们的最终产品之一是一种营养丰富的健康食品，可以作为饮料和零食出售。在为社会创造有价值的产品的同时，微藻因其具有高光合效率及高生长和繁殖率的特性被认为有效地减少了二氧化碳向大气的排放量，从而减缓了全球变暖对世界的影响。此外，微藻具有在苛刻环境下生长和发展的能力，它们仅占较小的耕地面积，因此不会导致与农业的竞争从而对全球粮食安全构成威胁。由此可见，微藻生产的生物燃料在某种程度上可以是经济的，并且对经济和环境也有利。正如Frank Rijsberman博士在4月20日德国柏林举行的2018年全球生物经济峰会上所说，“可再生能源应该是我们应对全球变暖任务的首选”，而微藻则是最佳选择之一。
Nowadays, thanks to the advancements in technological development, we are able to extract biomass out of microalgae for multiple usage. Euglena, for example, is a Japanese Company, who operates a branch in Shanghai, researches and produces nutrient solution and plasmid extracted from euglena (a type of microalgae). One of their final products is a nutrient rich health food which can be sold as a drink or snack bar. While creating valuable products for the society, microalgae is believed to efficiently reduce the carbon dioxide emission to atmosphere due to the fact they have high photosynthetic efficiency, thus reducing the impact of global warming. This is partly because microalgae have high growth and reproduction rate. Besides, microalgae have the ability to grow and reproduce under harsh-surviving condition and they only occupy small cultivation land area and thus are not a threat to global food security through competition with agriculture. Algae-based biomass are technically and economically viable where it requires no additional lands, require minimal water use, and mitigate atmospheric CO2. In future, biofuels production from microalgae can be economical at some scale, and also profitable to economy and also environment. As Dr. Frank Rijsberman noticed stated at the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2018 on April 20th in Berlin, Germany, “the adoption of renewable energy should be our priority to face global warming”. 
除生物燃料产品外，开发食品的重要性也不可小觑。如Euglena酒吧; 是一项改善全球人民健康状况的伟大战略。 中国乃至全世界正面临的问题并不是食品产量，而是食品质量。世界卫生组织（WHO）已经确定了22种可能由营养缺乏引起的疾病。据统计，自1988年以来在40个国家内，营养性疾病共造成超过125万人死亡，如心脏病，营养疾病的一种，就是全世界最大的死亡病因。相反，我们很少听到由于食物短缺而造成大面积死亡的消息。
The importance of developing food products, like the Euglena bar, in addition to biofuel products, is a great strategy that improve people’s health condition in a global scale. The problem being faced, not only in China but the entire world, is not food shortage, rather it is more of the quality of the food. WHO (World Health Organization) has identified 22 types of disease that can trace back the cause to nutritional deficiency, and it is estimated that more than 1.25 million death was caused by nutritional diseases since 1988 in 40 countries: heart disease, the largest cause of death around the world, is an example of above. On the contrary, seldom death was reported to be merely caused by unequal access to the food.
此外，导致低质量食品的原因并非因为市场高质量食品的短缺，而更多是由于大多数人无法承担这些类食品的费用。微藻生物质食品却能完美地解决上述问题。原则上，微藻产品的最佳生长条件是淡水资源，然而，它也可以循环水，海水和微咸水的形式，通过预处理去除生长抑制成分。此外，微藻生产的最大好处之一是它可以在边缘土地上种植，从而大大减少了与传统食物来源生产的竞争。不仅如此，虽然藻类对温度敏感，其高生产力需要与温度控制同时进行，但大部分用来培育的化石燃料输入都来自电能及废弃天然气，其温度控制所消耗的能源也更多来自化石燃料的废弃能量而非其他类型的能源。由此可见，生物质产品在任何类型的土地上生产成本低，微藻生物质食物产品与传统食品相比价格将更便宜。
Additionally, the reason of having low quality food was not necessarily caused by the shortage of high-quality food, but primarily due to the matter that most people were unable to afford the cost of those types of food. By principle, the optimal growing condition for microalgae product is fresh water resources, however, it can also be in the form of recycled water, seawater, and brackish water with pre-treatment that removes growth inhibiting component. Plus, one of the greatest benefits of microalgae production is that it can be cultivated on marginal land and thereby largely diminish its competition for the traditional food source. Moreover, while Algae are temperature-sensitive, and its high productivity needs to be done along with temperature control, most fossil fuel inputs for the cultivation come from electricity consumption as well as used natural gas, the temperature control for Algae will consume more waste energy from the fossil fuel and does not demand other types of energy. Due to the matter that biomass product requires low cost in production on any type of land, it is cheap in price comparing to the traditional food products while providing you a high amount of nutrition.
然而，由于藻类培养和加工产品相关的能源成本庞大，目前运营经济上可行的微藻生物精炼厂的利润非常有限。但通过研究和开发的突破，我们将能继续将微藻原料作为中国绿色经济发展的至关重要的因素之一纳入考量。 其中一部分的研究重点将着重于设计在控制成本的前提下提高微藻原料总生物量，从而产出更多原料。 正是这种动机鼓励了我们SUIS万源的iGEM研究团队对一种细菌菌株进行基因工程改造，让它与某些微藻菌株共培养，产生一种互利的相互作用，从而有效地提高总体生物量。
However, the current margins for operating economically viable microalgae biorefineries are quite fine due to large energy costs associated with algae cultivation, harvesting, and processing the products. Step by step, breakthroughs in research and development is allowing us to keep considering microalgae feedstocks to be at the very least one of the key players in the development of a green economy for China. One area of research focuses on strategies designed to inexpensively upscale the total biomass of the microalgae stock, allowing for increased raw materials to be produced. It is this motivation that encouraged us, SUIS WanYuan’s iGEM research team to genetically engineer a strain of bacteria which, when co cultured with certain strains of microalgae can interact in a mutually beneficial way with the result of an overall increase in useful biomass.
在不久的将来，我们将可以更多的依赖日常生活中的微藻产品，包括食品补充剂，运输燃料，化妆品和药品。 这将是一个更绿色，更繁荣的未来。
In the near future we could be relying on numerous products from microalgae in our daily lives, from food supplements, transport fuel, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Here is to a greener and more prosperous future.
References:
Hariskos, I., & Posten, C. (2014). Biorefinery of microalgae – opportunities and constraints for different production scenarios. Biotechnology Journal, 9(6), 739-752.
Lum, K., Kim, J., & Lei, X. (2013). Dual potential of microalgae as a sustainable biofuel feedstock and animal feed. Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology, 4(1), 53-53.
Pittman, Dean, & Osundeko. (2011). The potential of sustainable algal biofuel production using wastewater resources. Bioresource Technology, 102(1), 17-25.
Rupprecht, J. (2009). From systems biology to fuel— Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model for a systems biology approach to improve biohydrogen production. Journal of Biotechnology, 142(1), 10-20.