Duckweed: exploring its farm-to-fork potential for food production and biorefineries

Abstract

Duckweed is a promising and sustainable aquatic plant offering an eco-friendly alternative for synthesizing high-value bio-products and has potential across food industries, pharmaceuticals, and bioenergy production. This review explores duckweed cultivation, harvesting, and biorefining of duckweed into value-added products, with a focus on both traditional and innovative production methods. Advanced techniques, such as superhydrophobic coatings, bioreactor systems, and process waste management, are discussed to enhance biomass yield. Various impacts of abiotic factors that influences the cultivation practices are examined and effective management strategies (harvesting frequency, storage conditions, and appropriate pretreatment methods) are discussed. The biorefinery of duckweed biomass is extensively investigated for producing organic acids, biofuels, biochar, biofertilizer, enzymes, vitamins, and proteins. Current and future applications of duckweed in feed, wastewater treatment, pharmaceuticals, and functional foods are highlighted. Thus, duckweed biorefinery presents a versatile platform to meet the growing demand for sustainable resources. It also facilitates to capture the high value products with reduced environmental impacts by applying life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis. However, further research is essential to develop scalable and cost-effective solutions.