Marine brown algae: A conundrum answer for sustainable biofuels production

Meeting renewable fuels goals requires development of a large sustainable biomass resources, massive brown algae could be a potential contributor towards this goal. To date, very little information has been known for brown algal resource. This review provides overall perspective on feature and applications required for an initial assessment of the development of brown algae as a sustainable biofuels resource. The contribution presents fundamental theme of brown algae and its various applications for biofuels production. Although brown algae present one of the best available options as a sustainable biomass, the drawbacks to the economically viable production of biofuels must be solved. One of the most economic approaches for biofuels production may be the combined producing bin-active materials where multiple biofuels are produced from one biomass resource. The integrated biorefinery platform could be proposed to accomplish the biofuels of brown algae more profitable in the near future. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.