20 - Marine biomass toward biofuel production

Abstract

Biorefinery is a process of converting biomass into renewable and economically valuable products. Biorefinery leads to the augmentation of novel biotechnological products and the reduction of raw materials. It is considered as a green global solution for the sustainable future. With an increasing population, satisfying their energy demands always remains a great challenge—that too with an effective and alternative solution to fossil fuel source that is much appreciable in terms of research. In this regard, research focus to acknowledge the use of biomass to replace parts of fossil resources, minimize the production cost, and secondary pollutants. Marine biorefinery is one such method that makes use of microbial community isolated from marine environment that includes bacteria, algae (microalgae, macroalgae), yeast, sponges, and seaweeds, which has shown a good yield in biofuel production by many researchers worldwide. Marine biorefinery methods include physical, chemical, thermal, and biotechnological processes, which can be implemented as an individual or integrated system in a synergistic way to produce economically feasible biofuels (biogas, biodiesel, bioethanol). Added to these, several eco-friendly by-products and value-added products, namely, antioxidants, nutraceuticals, enzymes, natural pigments, food additives, feedstocks, livestocks, and other biological products, can also be obtained. The major advantage of the marine biorefinery process is to utilize the optimal energy and vitality of marine biomass because of its renewable characteristics that can resolve the issues of waste management and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore this chapter intends to discuss the role of various marine biomass with respect to fuel production, which can be an emerging sustainable energy technology to satisfy the global energy need.