Marine Biomass for Biofuels and Biochemicals Production

Dear Colleagues,

Marine biomass sources such as seaweeds and kelp have tremendous potential for production of fuels and high-value products. Their fast growth rates, ease of harvesting, and low preproduction cost make them suitable candidates for tapping the immense solar energy into useful energy and biobased products. Seaweeds are presently used as human foods, cosmetics, fertilizers, and for the extraction of industrial gums and chemicals (long- and short-chain) with medicinal and industrial uses. Selective separation of high-value products and fuels is a major challenge for any type of biomass. Thermochemical and biochemical conversion methods have been well tested for both terrestrial and marine biomass systems. Laboratory-scale pyrolysis, gasification, torrefaction, and combustion of algae and lignocellulosic feedstocks have been reported in literature. Commercial-scale anaerobic digestion and fermentation technologies have also been demonstrated worldwide. Hydrothermal conversion of wet, whole biomass has been reported as an alternative to the above methods. Microwave methods and other ways of extraction have been recently reported for extracting proteins and high-value products from wet algae. In order to be sustainable, future technologies would focus on using most of the organics in the biomass and deriving a suite of high-value bio-based products and (/or) fuels. While a single method may not be attractive, a combination of technologies and their integration will be the way forward to using marine biomass. The present issue aims to include the recent innovations in marine biomass application and will focus on topics including biomass harvesting, fractionation/extraction, and upgrading (and conversion) into fuels and coproducts, and systems analysis such as life cycle and technoeconomics for sustainable application of marine biomass.

Dr. Umakanta Jena
Dr. R. Vinu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• seaweed
• kelp
• conversion
• value-added products
• biofuel
• biobased
• sustainability