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Cellulose is a naturally occurring organic polymer extracted mainly from lignocellulosic biomass of terrestrial origin. However, the increasing production of seaweeds for growing global market demands has developed the opportunity to use it as an additional cellulose source. This review aims to prepare comprehensive information to understand seaweed cellulose and its possible applications better. This is the first review that summarizes and discusses the cellulose from all three types (green, red, and brown) of seaweeds in various aspects such as contents, extraction strategies, and cellulose-based products. The seaweed cellulose applications and future perspectives are also discussed. Several seaweed species were found to have significant cellulose content (9-34% dry weight). The review highlights that the properties of seaweed cellulose-based products were comparable to products prepared from plant-based cellulose. Overall, this work demonstrates that cellulose could be economically extracted from phycocolloids industrial waste and selected cellulose-rich seaweed species for various commercial applications.

Microbial biophotovoltaic cells exploit the ability of cyanobacteria and microalgae to convert light energy into electrical current using water as the source of electrons. Such bioelectrochemical systems have a clear advantage over more conventional microbial fuel cells which require the input of organic carbon for microbial growth. However, innovative approaches are needed to address scale-up issues associated with the fabrication of the inorganic (electrodes) and biological (microbe) parts of the biophotovoltaic device. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of using a simple commercial inkjet printer to fabricate a thin-film paper-based biophotovoltaic cell consisting of a layer of cyanobacterial cells on top of a carbon nanotube conducting surface. We show that these printed cyanobacteria are capable of generating a sustained electrical current both in the dark (as a ‘solar bio-battery’) and in response to light (as a ‘bio-solar-panel’) with potential applications in low-power devices., Cyanobacteria can be exploited to convert light energy into electrical current, however utilising them efficiently for power generation is a challenge. Here, the authors use a simple commercial inkjet printer to fabricate a thin-film paper-based biophotovoltaic cell capable of driving low-power devices.

The application of algae to the most meaningful fields of our life, such as food, environment and energy, finds a further confirmation in the extension of this application to cultural heritage protection. In this letter, we present the results of a preliminary study testing how a polysaccharide extracted from algal matrix can restore degraded paper giving back it mechanical strength and chemical structure.

In this study, the ability of algae to treat a wood-based pulp and paper industry wastewater was investigated. Tests were performed in batch reactors seeded with a mixed culture of algae. Under different lighting and initial wastewater strength conditions, changes in COD, AOX and color contents of reactors were followed with time. Algae were found to remove up to 58% of COD, 84% of color and 80% of AOX from pulp and paper industry wastewaters. No remarkable differences were observed in COD and color when light intensity and wastewater strength were changed, while AOX removals were strongly affected. Algal species identification studies revealed that some green algae (Chlorella) and diatom species were dominant in the treatment. The study also showed that algae grew mixotrophically, while the main mechanism of color and organics removal from pulping effluents was partly metabolism and partly metabolic conversion of colored and chlorinated molecules to non-colored and non-chlorinated molecules. Adsorption onto algal biomass was not so effective.

Gelidialian red algae, that contain rhizoidal filaments, except the family Gelidiellaceae were processed to make bleached pulps, which can be used as raw materials for papermaking. Red algae consist of rhizoidal filaments, cortical cells usually reddish in color, and medullary cells filled with mucilaginous carbohydrates. Red algae pulp consists of mostly rhizoidal filaments. Red algae pulp of high brightness can be produced by extracting mucilaginous carbohydrates after heating the algae in an aqueous medium and subsequently treating the extracted with bleaching chemicals. In this study, we prepared paper samples from bleached pulps obtained from two red algae species (Gelidium amansii and Gelidium corneum) and compared their properties to those of bleached wood chemical pulps.

Pulp and paper secondary waste-treatment systems in Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S.A. contained dynamic cyanobacterial communities, some of which exceeded heterotrophic bacterial biomass. No other viable photoautotrophic populations were detected in the ponds. Regardless of geographical location, Oscillatoriales including Phormidium, Geitlerinema, and Pseudanabaena were the dominant taxa. As well, Chroococcus (Chroococcales) was an important genus in Brazil and New Zealand. The possible impact of cyanobacteria on waste-treatment efficiency deserves further study given their large biomass and diverse metabolic characteristics.Key words: cyanobacteria, blue-green algae, heterotrophic bacteria, community structure, pulp and paper secondary waste treatment.

A unicellular blue-green alga, Agmenellum quadruplicatum , and a filamentous blue-green alga, Lyngbya lagerheimíi , were grown heterotrophically in dim light with glucose as major source of carbon and possibly energy. The dim-light conditions did not support autotrophic growth. The two blue-green algae appeared to have the same metabolic block, namely an incomplete tricarboxylic acid cycle, as has been found in other obligately phototrophic blue-green algae. Under dim-light conditions, glucose made a greater contribution to cell constituents (amino acids) of A. quadruplicatum and L. lagerheimii than under high-light conditions.