The essentials of marine biotechnology.

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better health and well-being, new biomedicines, natural cosmeceuticals, environmental conservation, and sustainable energy sources. These societal needs stimulated the interest of researchers on the diverse and underexplored marine environments as promising and sustainable sources of biomolecules and biomass, and they are addressed by the emerging field of marine (blue) biotechnology. Blue biotechnology provides opportunities for a wide range of initiatives of commercial interest for the pharmaceutical, biomedical, cosmetic, nutraceutical, food, feed, agricultural, and related industries. This article synthesizes the essence, opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges encountered in marine biotechnology and outlines the attainment and valorization of directly derived or bio-inspired products from marine organisms. First, the concept of bioeconomy is introduced. Then, the diversity of marine bioresources including an overview of the most prominent marine organisms and their potential for biotechnological uses are described. This is followed by introducing methodologies for exploration of these resources and the main use case scenarios in energy, food and feed, agronomy, bioremediation and climate change, cosmeceuticals, bio-inspired materials, healthcare, and well-being sectors. The key aspects in the fields of legislation and funding are provided, with the emphasis on the importance of communication and stakeholder engagement at all levels of biotechnology development. Finally, vital overarching concepts, such as the quadruple helix and Responsible Research and Innovation principle are highlighted as important to follow within the marine biotechnology field. The authors of this review are collaborating under the European Commission-funded Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action Ocean4Biotech – European transdisciplinary networking platform for marine biotechnology and focus the study on the European state of affairs

Comparison of Scenedesmus acuminatus and Chlorella vulgaris cultivation in liquid digestates from anaerobic digestion of pulp and paper industry and municipal wastewater treatment sludge

Two microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus acuminatus, were batch cultivated separately in two types of diluted liquid digestates. The first digestate (ADPP) was obtained from a mesophilic laboratory digester treating biosludge from a pulp and paper industry wastewater treatment plant. The second digestate (ADMW) was collected from a full-scale mesophilic anaerobic digester treating-mixed municipal wastewater treatment sludge. The highest biomass production (as volatile suspended solids, VSS), 8.2–9.4 g L−1, was obtained with S. acuminatus in ADPP. C. vulgaris in ADMW had the lowest biomass production, reaching 2.0 g L−1. Both microalgae removed ammonium efficiently from ADPP (99.9% removal) while the final ammonium removal efficiencies from ADMW with S. acuminatus and C. vulgaris were only 44.0 and 23.8%, respectively. The phosphate removal efficiencies from both ADPP and ADMW were higher than 96.9% with both microalgae. The highest carbohydrate content (60.5%) was obtained with S. acuminatus cultivated in ADPP. Scenedesmus acuminatus in ADPP showed one of the highest biomass production yields that have been reported for microalgae in real wastewater-derived nutrient sources. Consequently, this combination is promising for developing biorefinery and biofuel applications in the pulp and paper industry.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Prospecting for Oleaginous and Robust Chlorella spp. for Coal-Fired Flue-Gas-Mediated Biodiesel Production

Prospecting for robust and high-productivity strains is a strategically important step in the microalgal biodiesel process. In this study, 30 local strains of Chlorella were evaluated in photobioreactors for biodiesel production using coal-fired flue-gas. Three strains (M082, M134, and KR-1) were sequentially selected based on cell growth, lipid content, and fatty acid composition under autotrophic and mixotrophic conditions. Under autotrophic conditions, M082 and M134 showed comparable lipid contents (ca. 230 mg FAME [fatty acid methyl esters derived from microalgal lipids]/g cell) and productivities (ca. 40 mg FAME/L·d) versus a reference strain (KR-1) outdoors with actual flue-gas (CO2, 13%). Interestingly, under mixotrophic conditions, M082 demonstrated, along with maximal lipid content (397 mg FAME/g cell), good tolerance to high temperature (40 °C). Furthermore, the fatty acid methyl esters met important international standards under all of the tested culture conditions. Thus, it was concluded that M082 can be a feedstock of choice for coal-fired, flue-gas-mediated biodiesel production