Title : Waste algae biorefinery: Converting excess algal biomass into bioenergy, bioplastics and high-value bioproducts
Abstract:
A significant obstacle to sustainable biomass management is the production of surplus algal biomass, despite the growing use of microalgae in wastewater treatment providing a sustainable method for nutrient removal and water reclamation. Instead of treating harvested algal biomass as a waste stream, its conversion into value-added products can form an integrated algae biorefinery within a circular bioeconomy framework. The successive valorization of waste algal biomass produced during wastewater treatment is investigated in this work using a conceptual biorefinery approach. The suggested approach entails harvesting and pre-treating biomass, then recovering proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, pigments, and other bioactive substances. Carbohydrate-rich biomass can be used as a feedstock for bioethanol, biogas, or other fermentation-derived products, while the lipid-rich fraction can be used for biodiesel and other bioenergy applications. For the creation of biodegradable bioplastics and biopolymer-based products, residual biomass and appropriate algal fractions can be further studied. High-value substances including pigments, antioxidants, and other bioactive metabolites offer more chances to increase the process's economic viability. In addition to reducing reliance on fossil fuels and recovering valuable products from biological waste, such integrated valorization can concurrently manage the disposal of excess algal biomass. Thus, the suggested waste algae biorefinery offers a viable solution to combine resource recovery, sustainable biomaterial synthesis, and renewable energy generation with wastewater treatment. Transitioning this method from laboratory-scale research to industrial applications will require further improvement of biomass composition, extraction efficiency, process integration, and life-cycle sustainability.
Keywords: Waste algal biomass; algal biorefinery; wastewater treatment; resource recovery; bioenergy; bioplastics; high-value bioproducts; circular bioeconomy.
