Threats, Challenges and Issues of Large-Scale Cyanobacterial Cultivation

Cyanobacterial farming is an emerging trend to harness solar energy to produce multiple bioproducts. Additionally, cyanobacterial biomass production has potential to resolve the global warming problem by mitigating the impact of greenhouse gases. However, the massive cultivation of cyanobacteria is still at the budding stage because of technical issues in large-scale cultivation, optimization of strains, and calibration of sustenance medium and production medium in sterile conditions. Based on the abovementioned factors, this chapter discusses different aspects of cyanobacterial production systems that will cover the issues faced in photoautotrophic, heterotrophic and mixotrophic conditions. Their viability, growth, economic profitability and sustainability in open, closed and photobioreactors, respectively. Further, the challenges faced in the optimization process of versatile strains, which are commercially exploited for bioenergy, functional foods and high-value chemicals, were analysed on multi-parameters. We described various risks involved in downstream processing and adaptation to cultivation media specifications. This chapter will help to understand the glitches that occurred during large-scale production systems and summarize new strategies to support the circular bioeconomy.