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In Malaysia, the utilization of renewable energy (RE) as in “five fuel diversification policy” has been intensified since 2000 in the 8th Malaysian plan (2001-2005) as an addition to the supply from conventional energy sources. However, the RE goal in the policy was achieved minimally and later continued in the 9th Malaysian plan (2006-2010). At the end of 2010, The RE goal was again achieved minimally. Previous studies have been carried out to understand the influence of technological, economic, social and political barriers to the development of renewable energy in Malaysia, but not much on the communication barriers. Therefore, this paper will thoroughly examine the perceptions and understandings on the communication barriers towards renewable energy development in Malaysia.

Global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels have spurred many efforts in the quest for finding renewable, alternative sources of fuels, such as biodiesel. Due to its auxiliary functions in areas such as carbon dioxide sequestration and wastewater treatment, the potential of microalgae as a feedstock for biodiesel production has attracted a lot of attention from researchers all over the world. Major improvements have been made from the upstream to the downstream aspects related to microalgae processing. One of the main concerns is the high cost associated with the production of biodiesel from microalgae, which includes drying of the biomass and the subsequent lipid extraction. These two processes can be circumvented by applying direct or in situ transesterification of the wet microalgae biomass, hence substantially reducing the cost. In situ transesterification is considered as a significant improvement to commercially produce biodiesel from microalgae. This review covers the methods used to extract lipids from microalgae and various in situ transesterification methods, focusing on recent developments related to the process. Nevertheless, more studies need to be conducted to further enhance the discussed in situ transesterification methods before implementing them on a commercial scale.

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