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Prospects of Multiproduct Algal Biorefineries Involving Cascading Processing of the Biomass Employing a Zero-Waste Approach

  • Biology and Pollution (R Boopathy and Y Hong, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Increasing environmental problems demand mitigation solutions to fulfill sustainability development goals. Microalgae offer possibility of valorizing the CO2 and wastewater-derived nutrients to produce numerous industrial bioproducts. However, developing self-sustained systems for the complete valorization of algal biomass into valuable biobased products is challenging. Currently, sustainable algal processing faces several challenges including costly cultivation, difficult harvesting, and incomplete biomass valorization. This review assessed the prospects of emerging technologies focusing on the integrated approaches for sustainable algal biorefinery development ensuring the sustainability of environment-water-energy nexus.

Recent Findings

Evaluation of various upstream, midstream, and downstream processing technologies provided insights into the processing issues. In upstream processing, high-rate algal ponds and integrated carbon capture and transformation technologies offer waste valorization into eco-friendly algal production. A brief comparison of harvesting technologies mainly focusing on chemical and biological flocculation has shown that integrating physical and biological harvesting methods are more reliable and efficient. Overview of downstream processing has indicated that biomass processing in a cascading manner offers the complete biomass valorization in a zero-waste paradigm.

Summary

Assessment of cultivation-to-production technologies highlighted that “zero-waste” algal biorefinery has the potential to become reality by integrating the industry 4.0 and phenomics approaches with eco-friendly cultivation, harvesting, and processing technologies. Hybrid methods based on integrated cascading processing offer complete biomass valorization in a circular bioeconomy paradigm.

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      Funding

      The authors received financial support from Higher Education Commission (NRPU-7300), Pakistan. The partial support in MJB laboratories through National Science Foundation grants (EFRI 90055171, NSF Lichens 90078340) is also received.

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      Authors and Affiliations

      1. Bioenergy Research Centre, Department of Bioinformatics & Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

        Sana Malik, Ayesha Shahid, Muhammad Nabeel Haider, Mahwish Amin, Muhammad Aamer Mehmood & Muhammad Adnan Ul Haq

      2. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218 MD, USA

        Michael J. Betenbaugh

      3. Department of Public Health, Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Surabaya, 60237, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia

        Achmad Syafiuddin

      4. Department of Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA, 70310, USA

        Raj Boopathy

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      1. Sana Malik
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      Highlights

      • Anthropogenic activities require waste valorization to industrially viable products to mitigate environmental problems.

      • Designing self-sustainable and efficient algal biorefinery for waste valorization is challenging.

      • Standalone technologies for biomass processing are not robust.

      • Cascading biomass utilization offer promising potential to develop cost-effective biorefineries in a circular bioeconomy paradigm.

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      Malik, S., Shahid, A., Haider, M.N. et al. Prospects of Multiproduct Algal Biorefineries Involving Cascading Processing of the Biomass Employing a Zero-Waste Approach. Curr Pollution Rep 8, 147–158 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40726-022-00213-y

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