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Achievements in the production of bioplastics from microalgae
Summary
Researchers reviewed progress in producing bioplastics from microalgae as a more sustainable alternative to petrochemical plastics, which break down into persistent microplastics. Microalgae grow rapidly and require less land than other biomass sources, making them a promising but still technically challenging option for reducing plastic pollution.
Plastic waste generation has been increasing considerably, which bring about several environmental problems such as microplastics. In addition to the plastic pollution, the reduction in the use of petrochemical plastics is a key aspect to enhance sustainability. To alleviate the problems, the development of an innovative solution is rightly expected. Bioplastics are an alternative for conventional petrochemical plastics, recently gaining in a lot of attention. Microalgae can be an attractive source for the production of bioplastics given that they have a very distinctive growth yield in comparison to typical lignocellulosic biomass. Therefore, the employment of microalgae to produce bioplastics affords a golden opportunity to enhance sustainability of plastic usage. Given recent scientific research achievements in bioplastic production from microalgae, a review of the achievements is required. In this regard, this study was aimed at providing a review on the production of bioplastics using microalgae, which laid great emphasis on determining the current state of microalgal bioplastic production technologies and offering potential processes and applications. The prospect of bioplastic production based on microalgae is also discussed, and important points and challenges facing further research into the microalgal bioplastics are highlighted.