ABSTRACT
On several occasions throughout this chapter we have noted that that the economic and environmental impacts of microalgal technology are small (whether positive or negative) because of the small scale of microalgal production at present. However, we predict that the scale of production will increase as new strains (wild type and GMO) and new production technologies are developed: we see a future in which more nutritional, environmental, and energy products from microalgae will be economically attractive. In the meantime, and even at small scale, localized positive economic benefits of microalgal technology have been documented (see section on Economic impacts, above).
