Biorefinery approaches offer the potential to improve the economics of the microalgae industry by producing multiple products from a single source of biomass. Chromochloris zofingiensis shows great promise for biorefinery due to high biomass productivity and a diverse range of products including secondary carotenoids, predominantly astaxanthin; lipids such as TAGs; carbohydrates including starch; and proteins and essential amino acids. Whilst this species has been demonstrated to accumulate multiple products, the development of an integrated downstream process to obtain these is lacking. The objective of this review paper is to assess the research that has taken place and to identify the steps that must be taken to establish a biorefinery approach for C. zofingiensis. In particular, the reasons why C. zofingiensis is a promising species to target for biorefinery are discussed in terms of cellular structure, potential products, and means to accumulate desirable components via the alteration of culture conditions. Future advances and the challenges that lie ahead for successful biorefinery of this species are also reviewed along with potential solutions to address them.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13399-022-02955-7.
Keywords: Astaxanthin; Biorefinery; Chromochloris zofingiensis; Downstream processing; Lipids; Microalgae.
© The Author(s) 2022.