Green chemistry and the ocean-based biorefinery

• Published in: Green chemistry : an international journal and green chemistry resource : GC Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 86 - 871
• Main Authors: Kerton, Francesca M, Liu, Yi, Omari, Khaled W, Hawboldt, Kelly
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 01.01.2013
• Subjects: Biofuel production; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Chemical industry. Chemical engineering; Energy; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Industrial applications and implications. Economical aspects; Shellfish; Metabolite; Algae; Cellulose; Lipids; Chitin; Wasteless technology; Marine environment; Perspective; Fishery; Biorefinery; Green chemistry; Chitosan; Wastes; Supercritical fluid extraction; Secondary metabolism; Polysaccharide; Aminosugar
• ISSN: 1463-9262; 1463-9270
• DOI: 10.1039/c3gc36994c

Research into renewable chemicals, fuels and materials sourced from the oceans at Memorial University and elsewhere is employing green chemical technologies for the transformation of algae and food industry waste streams into useful products. A very small proportion of biomass utilization research is currently focused on these feedstocks and efforts focused in this area could reduce land space competition between food and chemical/fuel production. This perspective highlights some of the achievements and potential opportunities surrounding the use of algae and waste from shellfish and finfish processing. In particular, investigations in this field have used alternative solvents (water, supercritical carbon dioxide and methanol or ionic liquids) extensively. Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) has been used to extract lipids and pigments from algae, and oils from fish-processing plant waste streams. Water can be used to isolate potentially high value biologically-active oligosaccharides from some seaweeds. Biotechnological approaches are showing promise in the separation of biopolymers from shellfish waste streams. Production of new nitrogen-containing bioplatform chemicals ( e.g. 3-acetamido-5-acetylfuran) from aminocarbohydrates (chitin, chitosan and N -acetylglucosamine) is being pursued. Competition for land use could be minimized if marine sourced feedstocks were used for chemicals and materials production rather than crops grown on fertile land.