Algae based biorefinery—How to make sense?

The interest in algae based biofuels and chemicals has increased over the past few years because of their potential to reduce the dependence on petroleum-based fuels and chemicals. Algae is touted to be the most suitable and sustainable feedstock for producing green energy as the whole process is carbon—neutral in nature and can also be utilized for environment cleaning applications. This review article mainly focuses on how algae can be used as an efficient and economically viable biorefinery feedstock. An effective biorefinery using algae can only be constructed through its integration with other industries. To make sense of the algal biorefinery concept, there is a need to establish a proper connection between the various input and output streams of the products, as well as the services to be provided by the participating industries. Also highlighted in this article, is the entire spectrum of energy and non energy products that can be obtained using algal biomass as the raw material.