Biorefinery of marine macroalgae into high-tech bioproducts: a review

Abstract

Pollution and climate change induced by fossil fuel usage are calling for the development of a circular bioeconomy based on carbon neutral resources such as marine macroalgae, also named seaweeds. Macroalgal biomass can generate biofuels and valuable bioproducts such as hydrocolloids and other unique biomolecules. Biorefinery of marine macroalgae involves a minimum use of energy and chemicals, and low waste generation, as demonstrated in recent laboratory-scale studies. Here, we review biorefinery of marine macroalgae with focus on non-energy bioproducts and advances in the separation of biomolecules. We found that metabolites with bioactive properties are in high demand for food, cosmetic, medicine and pharmaceutical industries. These metabolites can be obtained together with energy products to improve macroalgae valorization. Emerging extraction methods facilitate the generation of more qualitative bioproducts in higher yields with less energy.

Green synthesis of ZrO2 nanoparticles and nanocomposites for biomedical and environmental applications: a review

“…Algae use chlorophyll for their primary photosynthesis; therefore, they are sometimes considered as terrestrial plants. Some algal species such as brown algae, or seaweeds excrete fucoidans from their cell walls (Filote et al 2021 ). Fucoidans refer to multifunctional polysaccharides containing a substantial amount of fucose and sulfated esters, exhibiting many bioactivities involving antiviral, antioxidant, and anticoagulant (Ponce and Stortz 2020 ).…”

Marine Polysaccharides: Occurrence, Enzymatic Degradation and Utilization

“…Beside the harmful environmental effects and high disposal cost of algal waste, the rising occurrence of algal biomass from these blooms also has a huge potential for biotechnological applications. One bottleneck for its use is access to the valuable chemical compounds within the algae, which has been described in recent reviews for the lipids and protein fractions [8–10] . For marine polysaccharides, Trincone provided an overview about carbohydrate‐active enzymes (CAZymes) involved in the degradation of macroalgal polysaccharides [11] and Filote et al .…”

“…For marine polysaccharides, Trincone provided an overview about carbohydrate‐active enzymes (CAZymes) involved in the degradation of macroalgal polysaccharides [11] and Filote et al . covered aspects of potential biorefinery processes utilizing marine sugars [8] . In the review by Ertesvåg, the enzymatic degradation pathway of alginate was illustrated [12] which is complemented by a recent summary of the characteristics and applications of alginate lyases [13] and new insights into fungal alginate lyases from Paradendryphiella salina [14] .…”

“…One bottleneck for its use is access to the valuable chemical compounds within the algae, which has been described in recent reviews for the lipids and protein fractions. [ 8 , 9 , 10 ] For marine polysaccharides, Trincone provided an overview about carbohydrate‐active enzymes (CAZymes) involved in the degradation of macroalgal polysaccharides [11] and Filote et al . covered aspects of potential biorefinery processes utilizing marine sugars.…”

“…covered aspects of potential biorefinery processes utilizing marine sugars. [8] In the review by Ertesvåg, the enzymatic degradation pathway of alginate was illustrated [12] which is complemented by a recent summary of the characteristics and applications of alginate lyases [13] and new insights into fungal alginate lyases from Paradendryphiella salina . [14] However, a detailed article dealing with the enzymatic degradation of other complex marine polysaccharides to access rare sugars is missing.…”