Marine-Based Biorefinery: A Path Forward to a Sustainable Future

Dear Colleagues,

Biofuels and bio-based products are widely produced by fermentation through biorefinery processes, and are among the best alternatives to fossil-based fuels and chemicals due to their capacity for net-negative carbon emissions, which is a vital contribution towards achieving the global ambition of a net-zero economy. However, current biorefinery technologies mainly rely on edible crops and freshwater as the main inputs for the process. With an ever-growing population and demand for biofuels and other bio-based produces, there are concerns over the use of the world’s limited freshwater and food crop resources for non-nutritional activities, as well as there not being enough arable land and freshwater to produce enough biomass to satisfy the likely biofuel demand and to capture the excessive amounts of CO₂ that have already been released into the atmosphere. On the other hand, marine-based biorefinery is a new approach, where seawater, marine biomass (seaweed) and marine microorganisms (yeast, bacteria and microalgae) are used in fermentation processes for the production of biofuels and bio-based compounds.

Seas and oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and contain more than 97% of the Earth’s water as well as the minerals needed for biomass (seaweed) production and their subsequent conversion to bioenergy. Compared to terrestrial biomass, seaweed grows much faster, up to 50 times more efficiently in a CO₂ fixation, and are hugely abundant worldwide, able to be cultivated in the sea forming sea forests that potentially provide great advantages to the marine environment. Marine yeasts are more tolerant to inhibitors and can carry out fermentation using seawater-based media. Marine microalgae can grow efficiently on seawater and utilise CO₂, from the atmosphere or from fermentation and anaerobic digestion (AD) processes, as a carbon source for growth. Combining all these (seawater, seaweed, marine microalgae and yeast, fermentation and AD) in an integrated marine biorefinery system could be a promising approach for supporting the global effort regarding mitigating climate change, as well as addressing the world’s water, food and energy shortages.

Dr. Abdelrahman Zaky
Dr. Abd El-Fatah Abomohra
Guest Editors

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