A review of UAE native seaweed as potential bio-refinery feedstock for jet fuel and high value chemicals

The UAE government has hosted several initiatives to produce sustainable jet fuel from locally available feedstock to support its sustainable energy strategy and vision. With more than 2000 km of coastline UAE is home to a large variety of aquatic biomass, such as seaweed. The local seaweed strains can act as ultimate candidate feedstock for not only bioenergy (jet fuel) but also a source for high value chemicals. Seaweed contains high carbohydrates and rapid growth rates and low lignin content. Several seaweed biomasses strains have been identified along the shores of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi amongst which one strain Ulva Sp. was the most dominant in terms of occurrence and availability. A bio refinery utilizing the local UAE seaweed strains could provide many advantages for the commercial viability the due to the fact that seaweed has potential to other high value product such as active components for pharmaceutical products as their market value is much higher that sustainable jet fuel. The preliminary chemical characterization showed significant glucan contents which indicate fermentable sugar content in these biomass samples. This make the local aquatic biomass an interesting research project both to fulfill the sustainable jet fuel initiative and establish further knowledge in the local aquatic biomass biorefinery capabilities.