Plastic waste production around the world is increasing, which leads to global plastic waste pollution. The need for an innovative solution to reduce this pollution is inevitable. Increased recycling of plastic waste alone is not a comprehensive solution. Furthermore, decreasing fossil-based plastic usage is an important aspect of sustainability. As an alternative to fossil-based plastics in the market, bio-based plastics are gaining in popularity. According to the studies conducted, products with similar performance characteristics can be obtained using biological feedstocks instead of fossil-based sources. In particular, bioplastic production from microalgae is a new opportunity to be explored and further improved. The aim of this study is to determine the current state of bioplastic production technologies from microalgae species and reveal possible optimization opportunities in the process and application areas. Therefore, the species used as resources for bioplastic production, the microalgae cultivation methods and bioplastic material production methods from microalgae were summarized.

In this study, we investigated the factors affecting the lifetime of liquid marbles placed on a glass surface and floating on water. It was found that the particle size, surface free energy and hydrophobicity of the encapsulating microparticles determine the effective surface tension and lifetime of a liquid marble floating on water. We formed liquid marbles using ultra-hydrophobic poly(perfluoroalkyl ethyl acrylate) powder with three different particle sizes (8 ± 1, 20 ± 2 and 60 ± 5 μm) and polytetrafluoroethylene powder (7 ± 2 μm). It was found that both the effective surface tension and lifetime of a floating liquid marble increased considerably with the decrease in the particle size of the ultra-hydrophobic poly(perfluoroalkyl ethyl acrylate) powder. We also determined that a floating liquid marble had a longer lifetime if the water contact angle of the polymer powder was high and its surface free energy was low by comparing the results of two different powders having very close average particle sizes but different hydrophobicities.