ABSTRACT
Algae are considered as one of the most promising sustainable feedstocks for the production of renewable fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, fertilizers and other high-value-added products due to their advantages such as having no overlap with food crops, ability to grow in non-arable lands or wastewater ponds and higher photosynthetic efficiency. Owing to the presence of lipid, carbohydrate and protein in microalgae and macroalgae in varying quantities, their usage is more focused on liquid biofuels such as bioethanol, biobutanol, biodiesel, bio-gasoline and bio-aviation fuels. Besides fuels and chemicals, algal biomass derivatives received huge attention as food supplements, nutraceuticals and fertilizers, and in water purification, bioplastic and fish and animal feed applications. To make these processes economically feasible, more research should be focused on algal cultivation methods with lower price, moderate process conditions, higher product yield and strategies for utilizing by-products. This chapter discusses the techno-economic analysis for fuels, chemicals, antioxidants, fatty acids, flavonoids, carbohydrates, fertilizers, wastewater phycoremediation, fish and animal feed applications and bioplastic production using microalgae and macroalgae through different technologies. Besides, bottlenecks in commercialization are identified to improve the processing technologies; therefore, the product cost could be on a par with the conventional products in the market.
