Promising biorefinery products from marine macro and microalgal biomass: A review

Recently, algal biorefinery concepts have been gaining a lot of attention. The rapidly evolving algae mediated bioeconomy places an increased emphasis on characterizing and addressing the significant need to develop products for a sustainable future. These emerging developments must always be accompanied by the principles of economic and environmental sustainability, which will aid in unravelling the contentious link between the bioproduct-energy-ecosystem that the algae exist. Understanding the metabolic activities to produce biofuels and bioproducts can shed light on the critical barriers that currently limit net carbon utilization and photosynthetic activity, which will eventually steer towards efficient production and some insights on financial prospects in the context of limited resources. Researchers have studied numerous potential pathways as well as addressed and identified significant obstacles in the theoretical aspect of macro- and microalgal biorefinery systems in order to improve the prospect. To date, researchers have studied every promising biorefinery product, classified their appropriate transformation and extraction processes, along with their values and commercial viability. This review comprehensively discusses the updates on biorefinery products derived from marine algae along with the challenges and opportunities for obtaining valuable products from the marine algal biomass. Considering possible technological advances, herein, the products of algal biotechnology and their unique applications have been described to demonstrate how marine algae could provide modern, inexpensive, along with sustainable remedies for humans in the future.

Automated summary

Recently, the concept of algal biorefinery has gained a lot of attention, highlighting the need for sustainable development. Researchers have extensively studied theoretical aspects to improve the prospect of algal biorefinery systems, while also identifying challenges and opportunities for obtaining valuable products from marine algae.