Bioplastic Production from Microalgae: A Review

Abstract

Plastic waste production around the world is increasing, which leads to global plastic waste pollution. The need for an innovative solution to reduce this pollution is inevitable. Increased recycling of plastic waste alone is not a comprehensive solution. Furthermore, decreasing fossil-based plastic usage is an important aspect of sustainability. As an alternative to fossil-based plastics in the market, bio-based plastics are gaining in popularity. According to the studies conducted, products with similar performance characteristics can be obtained using biological feedstocks instead of fossil-based sources. In particular, bioplastic production from microalgae is a new opportunity to be explored and further improved. The aim of this study is to determine the current state of bioplastic production technologies from microalgae species and reveal possible optimization opportunities in the process and application areas. Therefore, the species used as resources for bioplastic production, the microalgae cultivation methods and bioplastic material production methods from microalgae were summarized.

Bioplastic from Renewable Biomass: A Facile Solution for a Greener Environment

“…Microalgae could be used directly as biomass to produce bioplastics or indirectly by the extraction of PHBs and starch within microalgae cells. Other approaches include the production of microalgae-polymer blends through compression/ hot molding, melt mixing, solvent casting, injection molding, or twin-screw extrusion (Cinar et al 2020).…”

“…Chlorella seems to have better bioplastic behavior, whereas Spirulina showed better blend performance (Zeller et al 2013). Different species of Chlorella were used in biomass-polymer blends containing polymers and additives (Cinar et al 2020). Moreover, bioplastic may be produced from Chlorella pyrenoidosa (Das et al 2018) and Chlorella sorokiniana-derived starch granules (Gifuni et al 2017).…”

“…Moreover, bioplastic may be produced from Chlorella pyrenoidosa (Das et al 2018) and Chlorella sorokiniana-derived starch granules (Gifuni et al 2017). Similar to Chlorella, Spirulina was investigated for bioplastic production (Cinar et al 2020). For example, a bioplastic-based film was produced from salt-rich Spirulina sp.…”

“…New composites were formed by combination of microalgal biomass and petroleum. (Cinar et al 2020;Chia et al 2020). The PHB production is feasible in microalgae used as bioreactors by the introduction of bacterial pathways into microalgal cells (Hempel 2011) (Fig.…”

Characteristics and Properties of Biofilms Made from Pure Carrageenan Powder and Whole Seaweed (Kappaphycus sp.)

“…Few previous studies, as summarized by Tavassoli-Kafrani and others [11], seaweed-based bioplastic were focusing on blends with other materials, such as, chitosan, cellulose, antimicrobial compounds, essential oil and others, mainly for coating and packaging food. The development of bioplastic requires the polysaccharides, which acts as the main polymer chain, to form the bioplastic, where plasticizer is incorporated for its ability to soften and make bioplastic more flexible [12]. The more commonly used plasticizer in studies are glycerol especially in incorporating with seaweed-based polysaccharides [2,[13][14][15][16].…”