Green and Environmentally Friendly Technologies to Develop Macroalgal Biorefineries

Macroalgae contain a wide variety of high-value compounds with multiple health benefits, attracting the attention of researchers and industries interested in the commercial exploitation of these compounds as nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and cosmeceuticals amongst other high-value applications. The exploitation of these compounds requires the development of efficient extraction procedures aiming to improve the extraction yields while ensuring the development of more sustainable and green processes. Innovative extraction technologies, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), high-pressure-assisted extraction (HPAE), pulsed electric fields (PEF), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), and subcritical water extraction (SWE) have been recently explored to recover multiple compounds from macroalgae aiming to establish biorefinery platforms to allow the full exploitation of the macroalgal biomass. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the composition of macroalgae as well as a detailed review of the main principles and applications of innovative technologies for the recovery of multiple high-value compounds from macroalgae. The critical factors to consider working with these technologies including their effects reported on product quality, process efficiency, production costs and the development of environmentally friendly processes for the exploitation of macroalgae at industrial level will also be covered in this chapter together with the future prospects of the use of innovative technologies for the development of macroalgal biorefineries.