High-value chemicals from marine macroalgae: opportunities and challenges for marine-based bioenergy development

Marine macroalgae (seaweeds) are considered as one of the potential alternative sources for producing energy. Their low lignin and high carbohydrate content have often attracted much attention on the synthesis of alcohols as well as gaseous fuels, although these developments are limited by the low economic value of fuels. Marine macroalgae contain chemical that are distinctively different compared with terrestrial biomass. Their organic chemicals, either carbohydrates or secondary metabolites, are usually unique and vary depended on the diversity of marine macroalgae. These features offer great opportunities for the production of various marketable products with higher economic value than fuels. Integration of their valuable non-energy bioproducts will provide a financial incentive to reduce the cost production of bioenergy from macroalgae. In this review, we present the potency of high-value chemicals that can be derived from marine macroalgae. Current states of the biorefinery researches of this marine biomass are also discussed together with the challenges on their large scale application.