The green seaweed Ulva: tomorrow’s “wheat of the sea” in foods, feeds, nutrition, and biomaterials

Figures & data

Figure 1. Exceptional characteristics of the genus Ulva, demonstrating the reasons for its increased attention in diverse industries. High morphological plasticity: (Blomster, Maggs, and Stanhope (1999); Hayden et al. (2003); Wichard et al. 2015; Steinhagen, Weinberger, and Karez (2019); Steinhagen et al. (2023); massive proliferation: (Charlier et al. (2006); Charlier, Morand, and Finkl (2008); Smetacek and Zingone (2013); Gao et al. (2010); Steinhagen Weinberger, and Karez (2019)); high growth rates and ability to thrive at high stocking density: Mata, Schuenhoff, and Santos (2010); Lawton et al. (2013); Al-Hafedh, Alam, and Buschmann (2014); Sebök, Herppich, and Hanelt (2019); Stedt, Toth, et al. (2022); rapid nutrient uptake potential: Gao et al. (2013); Shahar et al. (2020); ^rStedt et al. (2022); wide environmental tolerance: Toth et al. (2020); Kirst (1990); Ghaderiardakani, Coates, and Wichard (2017); Bao et al. (2022); Thompson & Coates (2017); Ghaderiardakani et al. (2022); Steinhagen, Larsson, et al. (2022); Simon, McHale, and Sulpice (2022); Steinhagen, Enge et al. (2021); Kraft, Kraft, and Waller (2010).

Figure 2. Global production of green seaweeds reported in the FAO database since the 1970s reported by country; grey, Ulva spp. in South Africa; green, Ulva spp. in Vietnam; blue, M. nitidum in South Korea; orange, U. prolifera in China; not visible due to insignificant amounts: Ulva spp. produced in Portugal and Spain.

Table 1. Average and maximum global production of green seaweeds by country, 1950–2019 (Cai 2021; FAO 2022).

Ulva species	Average annual production 1950–2019 (wet tonnes)	Maximum annual production 1950–2019 (wet tonnes)	Maximum annual production 1950–2019 (year)	Cultivation in 2019 (wet tonnes)	Cultivation in 2020 (wet tonnes)	Cultivation in 2021 (wet tonnes)	Country
Monostroma nitidum	3,991	17,248	1992	6,321	8,241	7,958	Republic of Korea
Enteromorpha (Ulva) prolifera	1,367	12,540	2008	–*	200	850	China
Ulva spp.	515	2,900	2005	–	3,715	2,882	South Africa
Green seaweeds nei	–	–	2019	1,717	952	0	Vietnam
Green seaweeds nei	17.56	35	2019	35	5	5	Portugal
Green seaweeds nei	0.35	0.87	2019	0.87	–	–	Spain

* Notes: “–” indicates zero or no data.

Table 2. Nutritional composition of different species of Ulva.

Species	Season/Month	Protein %	Carbohydrate %	Lipid %	Ash%	Moisture	Reference
Ulva pertusa	April	ND	ND	2.15	ND	83.32	(Floreto, Teshima, and Ishikawa 1996)
U. reticulata	May	21.1	55.8	0.75	17.6	22.5	(Ratana-Arporn and Chirapart 2006)
U. clathrata		ND	ND	2.62	ND	92.00	(Kendel et al. 2015)
U. lactuca		27.2	61.5	0.3	11.0	12.6	(Ortiz et al. 2006)
U. clathrata	MSS	21.9	ND	2.5	49.6	ND	(Peña-Rodríguez et al. 2011)
	LSS	20.1	ND	2.2	27.5	ND
U. expansa		4.12	ND	0.65	35.66	84.59	(Osuna-Ruíz et al. 2023)
U. prolifera		19.87	ND	6.06	17.50	ND	(Pirian et al. 2016)
U. flexuosa		10.55	ND	2.82	33.00	ND
U. fasciata		14.06	ND	0.56	20.21	ND
U. californica		15.20	ND	3.75	28.76	ND
U. compressa		18.64	ND	0.90	22.30	ND
U. lactuca		21.55	ND	0.75	12.18	ND
U. linza		10.16	ND	3.70	24.62	ND
U. rigida		16.6	56.4	3.7	25.2	82.09	(Viera et al. 2011)
U. rigida		33.8	40.5	4.4	21.5	82.0	(Viera et al. 2011)
U. rigida		ND	ND	0.8	ND	ND	(Ivanova, Stancheva, and Petrova 2013)
U. fenestrata		ND	ND	0.5	ND	ND	(Colombo et al. 2006)
U. fenestrata	Spring	20.79	32.21	3.2-3.55	16.6	82	(Steinhagen, Larsson, et al. 2022; Steinhagen, Enge et al. 2021)
	Summer	4.67	40.21	1.17	22.56	81
U. fenestrata		17.8–23.2	ND	ND	ND	ND	(Stedt, Trigo, et al. 2022)
U. fenestrata (as U. lactuca)		15%–21%*	ND	ND	ND	ND	(Roleda et al. 2021)
U. linza		ND	ND	1.31	ND	ND	(Bakan et al. 2021)
U. lactuca	Spring	20.12	44.81	4.09	22.08	8.9	(Khairy and El-Shafay 2013)
	Summer	17.88	46.42	3.57	17.56	14.57
	Autumn	16.78	42.09	3.14	23.19	14.8
U. lacinulata^a	Lab	11.08	32.66	7.00	17.08	83.57	Current authors
U. compressa^b	Lab	26.19	20.66	8.13	12.52	90.59	Current authors
Ulva sp.^c	Fall	23.87	9.36	3.12	20.06	83.75	Current authors

* Calculated from total nitrogen using the conversion factor 4.6.

MSS: medium scale system; LSS: large scale system; ND: not determined.

^a From the North Atlantic (Portugal). See Cardoso et al. (2023) for information on the origin of this strain and the molecular identification.

^b From the German Wadden Sea, Dorum Neufeld, (53.742433, 8.514724).

^c From the North East Harbor of Helgoland, Germany (54.184237, 7.890829).

Table 3. Mineral composition of different species of Ulva.

Elements	Wet				Dried							Dried		Dried
	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn	June			Spring	Summer
Macro elements (mg/g)
	U. rigida									U. clathrata		U. fenestrata		U. fenestrata
Ca	0.69	3.23	0.46	1.11	2.11	12.73	1.56	2.23	ND	9.05	18.80	ND	ND	1.5–1.8
K	5.66	6.09	4.68	7.18	7.01	7.19	6.52	8.17	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	16–18
Mg	5.97	8.41	5.69	8.92	10.55	8.91	6.13	10.22	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	15–17
Na	5.19	5.74	4.44	4.62	6.27	6.31	5.83	5.21	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	17–22
Micro elements (µg/g)
Al	89.00	60.00	44.93	110.80	158.00	211.87	171.73	224.60	ND	ND	ND	27.446	36.727	ND
B	17.67	15.53	52.27	33.53	36.87	34.73	59.40	45.93	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND
Ba	0.53	0.80	0.67	0.80	0.60	1.27	0.87	1.67	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND
Co	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	ND	ND	ND	<0.035	0.039	ND
Cr	<0.010	0.20	0.60	0.20	<0.010	0.20	0.07	<0.010	ND	0.52	0.80	0.047	0.15	ND
Cu	3.27	3.00	2.00	1.33	6.33	4.13	1.00	1.93	1.6	54.17	13.80	0.482	0.74	11–26
Fe	227.87	188.20	124.60	225.07	293.93	461.47	574.53	399.87	130	340.1	41.72	25.89	35.56	30–60
Mn	3.00	3.07	4.60	5.40	5.47	10.07	10.27	6.93	8.4	ND	ND	1.29	4.77	5–14
Ni	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	<0.035	ND	2.37	5.72	0.084	0.348	ND
Zn	13.20	8.47	2.00	4.40	20.13	17.60	13.80	14.40	1.0	188.91	16.66	1.59	1.52	5–14
Reference	(Beril and Çankırılıgil 2019)								(Queirós et al. 2021)	(Peña-Rodríguez et al. 2011)		(Steinhagen, Larsson, et al. 2022)		(Roleda et al. 2021)

ND: not determined.

Figure 3. A principal component analysis of the amino acid profiles (% of protein) of various Ulva spp. from different geographic regions and cultivation conditions. Data are taken from Supplementary Table 3 and analyzed using JMP^® pro v. 17 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Prior to analysis, data underwent a log + 0.1 transformation. The “contrib scale” indicates the contributions (in percentage) of the variables to the principal axes. LSS: large scale system; MSS: medium scale system (Peña-Rodríguez et al. 2011). Arg: arginine; ala: alanine; asp: aspartic acid; cys: cysteine; gly: glycine; glu: glutamic acid; his: histidine; ile: isoleucine; leu: leucine; lys: lysine; met: methionine; phe: phenylalanine; pro: proline; thr: threonine; tyr: tyrosine; ser: serine; val: valine.

Figure 4. Principle component analysis (Martin and Maes 1979; Becker and Venkataraman 1984; Venables 1997) of the nutritional content (ash, protein, lipids, carbohydrates) of different Ulva spp. and soy, corn, rice and wheat. Data for Ulva were taken from Table 2 as percentages. When single values were missing, mean values were used. Data for soy, corn, rice and wheat were taken from the United States department of agriculture food data Central website (https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/index.html.) as percentages. The analysis was performed using the environment of R (version 4.02.), RStudio (version 2022.02.3). Data were not transformed prior to analysis. Percentages were transformed by arcsine-square-root transformation to correct for deficiencies of the proportions in normal distribution.

Figure 5. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the fatty acid profiles (left panel) of various Ulva spp. grouped by morphology (tubular or foliose/blade, right panel). Two species known to exhibit both morphologies were labeled as “both.” data were sourced from Supplementary Table 2 and analyzed using JMP^® pro v. 17 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Prior to analysis, data underwent a log + 0.1 transformation. Trace values (less than 0.1%) were substituted with 0.001%.

Table 4. Summary of the effect of Ulva-supplemented aquafeed on different cultivated seafood.

Examined organism	Species	Inclusion rate (% of DW)	Time (weeks)	Weight gain and growth rate	FCR	PER	PPV	Protein utilization	Other impacts	Ref.
African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)	U. lactuca	10, 20, 30	10	Decreased under diets of >10%	Impaired under diets of ≥20%	Decreased under diets of ≥20%	Decreased		Decreased diet palatability at high inclusion rate (≥20%)	1
Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)	U. rigida	5, 10, 15, 20	16	Decreased only under diet of 20%	Impaired only under diet of 20%	N.s.				2
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	U. lactuca	5, 10	9	N.s.	N.s.	N.s.				3
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	U. intestinalis	10, 20, 30, 40, 50	6	N.s. under diet ≤30% but decreased at higher inclusion rates	N.s.	N.s.				4
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	Ulva spp. (IMTA- cultured)	10, 15, 20	9	N.s. under diet of 10% but decreased at higher inclusion rates	N.s. under diet of 10% but impaired ≥15%	Decreased under diets of ≥15%			Highest lipid content in fish flesh under diet with 20%; No apparent effect on diet palatability	5
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	Ulva sp.	5, 10, 15, 20, 25		Increased under diets of ≤15%, decreased under diet of 25%	Improved under diets of ≤15%; No change under other diets	Increased under diets of ≤20%	Increased under diets of 10–25%			6
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	U. spp.	10	12	N.s.	N.s.	N.s.				7
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	U. rigida and U. lactuca 1:1	10, 15, 20	9	Decreased under diets of >10%	Impaired under diets of ≥15%	Increased under diets of ≥15%				8
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	U. rigida	10, 20, 30	11	Decreased only under diet of 30%	N.s. but increased under diet of 30%	Decreased only under diet of 30%				9
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	U. rigida	5	16	Improved	Improved	Increased		Increased		10
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)	U. rigida	5, 10, 15	12	Decreased only under diet of 15%	Impaired only under diet of 15%			Increased only under diet of 15%		11
Striped mullet (Mugil cephalus)	U. lactuca	10, 15, 20, 25	15	Improved with increasing inclusion rate	Improved with increasing inclusion rate	Increased with increasing inclusion rate				12
Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata)	U. lactuca	5	8	N.s.	N.s.	N.s.				13
Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata)	U. lactuca (IMTA-Ulva)	2.6, 7.8, 14.6, 29.1	16-20	Decreased only under diet of 29.1%	N.s. but impaired under diet of 29.1%	Decreased				14
Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata)	U. rigida	5, 15, 25	10	N.s. but Improved under diet of 30%	N.s.					15
Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata)	U. rigida	5 (+incresing lipid content)	7	N.s. but improved under a high-lipid diet (22%)	N.s. but improved under a high-lipid diet (22%)	N.s.		N.s.		16
Red seabream (Pagrus major)	U. pertusa	5	6	N.s.	N.s.	N.s.				17
Black seabream (Acanthopagrus shlegeli)	U. pertusa	10	20.5	N.s.						18
Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)	U. rigida	10	12	Decrease (only after starvation)						19
Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)	U. lactuca or U. linza	10	8.5	Decreased						20
European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)	U. lactuca	5, 10, 15	8	Decreased when content in feed incresed	Impaired when content in feed incresed		Increased			21
European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)	U. rigida	5	10	Decreased when content in feed incresed	Impaired when content in feed incresed	N.s.				22
European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)	U. lactuca	5, 10, 15	8	Improved under diets of ≤10%; decreased at 15%	Improved under diets of ≤10%; impaired at 15%	Increased only under diet of 5%	Increased only under diet of 5%			23
European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)		10	4	Decreased	N.s.		Inhibitory of protein digestion			24
White-spotted snapper (Lutjanus stellatus)	U. lactuca	5, 10, 15, 20	8.5	N.s.	N.s.				Reduced pepsin and lipase activity in the gut under diets of >5%	25
Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis)	U. ohnoi	5	13	Decreased	N.s.					26
Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis)	U. ohnoi	6	13	N.s.				N.s.	Selective retention of n-3 PUFA, EPA & DHA; positive effect on fish fillet texture & color. Positive effects maintained over a long period after supplementation	27
Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis)	U. ohnoi	5		Decreased						28
Large yellow corvina (Larimichthys polyactis)	U. prolifera	5, 10, 15	10	Improved when content in feed incresed	N.s.			Decreased when content in feed incresed		29
Goldfish (Carassius auratus)	U. reticulata	2, 4, 6, 8	6	Improved					Improved haematological parameters and fish color	30
sea chub (Girella laevifrons; Kyphosidae)	U. lactuca	15, 30, 45	4	N.s. under diet of 30%; decreased under other diets						31
dusky kob (Argyrosomus japonicus; Sciaenidae)	Ulva. sp.	5, 10, 15, 20	9	Decreased	Impaired					32
Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)	U. lactuca	1, 2, 3	4	Improved	Improved				Higher content of lipid and carotenoid in shrimp flesh under 3% diet	33
Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)	U. lactuca (IMTA-Ulva)	25, 50 (fresh Ulva for replacing aquafeed)	7	N.s. under diet of 25%, decreased under the diet of 50%	Improved (due to the reduced aquafeed in the diets)				Low protein content in shrimps flesh (although Ulva contained 32% protein as in the aquafeed)	34
Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)	U. lactuca	6.35, 12.7, 19.05, 25.4	6	Decreased under diets of >6.35%	Impaired under diets of ≥19.05%			Decreased under diets of >6.35%	Low energy, protein, and amino acid digestibility (compared with fishmeal or soybean meal)	35
Abalone (Haliotis midae)	Ulva sp. (IMTA-Ulva)	20, 30, 40, 60 (replaced commercial aquafeed)	52	N.s.					Unique associations in the gut microbiome and a lower abundance of Vibrio sp.	36
Abalone (Haliotis asinina)	U. pertusa	2.7, 5.4, 8.1	17.5	N.s.	N.s.	N.s.				37
Abalone (Haliotis discus)	U. australis	4, 8, 12, 16, 20 (replaced Unidaria pinnatifida)	2.5	Improved					Reduced mortality after exposure to air	38
Abalone (Haliotis laevigata)	Ulva sp.	fresh or enriched Ulva as sole feed compared to commercial aquafeed	13	Decreased	Impaired	Decreased			Enriched Ulva improved growth compared with non-enriched Ulva	39
Abalone (Haliotis laevigata)	Ulva sp.	5, 10, 20	13	Improved						39
Abalone (Haliotis tuberculata)	Ulva rigida	Enriched Ulva, non enriched macroalgae	12	Improved	Improved	Decreased			Enriched Ulva improved growth compared with non-enriched Ulva	40
Abalone (Haliotis tuberculata)	U. rigida	Young and old U. rigida’s effect on abalone post larval growth	4	Improved					Old and young U. rigida germlings with U. lens germlings improved postlarval growth	41
Purple sea urchin (Arbacia punctulata)	U. lactuca	Fresh Ulva and commercial fish diets	12	N.s.					Increased gonads mass and altered their color; reduced alimentary canal index (% of total mass)	42
Collector sea urchin (Tripneustes gratilla elatensis)	U. fasciata (IMTA-Ulva)	Fresh Ulva as sole feed and Gracilaria sp. or algal-free pellets	8	Improved					Positive effect on the gut microbial networks and occurrence of unique microbes related to metabolism of Ulva polysaccharides	43
Collector sea urchin (Tripneustes gratilla)	U. rigida (IMTA-Ulva)	5, 15, 20 in the pelleted diet	12	N.s.					Improved diet palatability, consumption, and digestibility (compared with algal-free pellets); increased gonads somatic index (compared with fresh Ulva diet)	44
Collector sea urchin (Tripneustes gratilla)	U. pertusa	Fresh Ulva as sole feed and Undaria or Gloiopeltis		Decreases compared with Undaria but better than Gloiopeltis	Improved					45
Collector sea urchin (Tripneustes gratilla lineus)	U. armoricana	Fresh Ulva, or in pelleted diet (20%)		improved					Ulva diets eliminated the need for a high-protein diet. Ulva-containing pellets during the 12 weeks prior harvesting is necessary for improving gonad size and color	46
Purple sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus)	Ulva sp.	50 (fresh Ulva for replacing pelleted feed)								46
Purple sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus)	U. lactuca (IMTA-Ulva)	Fresh Ulva and Gracillaria compared to pelleted diet	13	N.s.					Improved gonads color but reduced gonad somatic index	47
Sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra)	U. lactuca	Raw vs. mechanically shredded Ulva	0.5	N.s.					Higher feed ingestion and fecal production rates under the shredded Ulva diet	48
Sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus)	U. lactuca	5, 10, 40 in pelleted diet	12	Improved with increasing feed content	Improved with increasing feed content				Higher attractiveness and intake of 40% Ulva diet. Lower performances compared with soybean-containing diet	49
Sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus)	U. lactuca	14, Laminaria at same rate or algal free pellets		Decreased compared with Laminaria					Lower content of n-3 PUFA in flesh than in Laminaria diet	50

N.s.: no significant change; DW: dry weight; FCR: food conversion ratio; PER: protein efficient ratio; PPV: protein productive value.

¹(Abdel-Warith, Younis, and Al-Asgah 2016); ²(Diler et al. 2007); ³(Natify et al. 2015); ⁴(Siddik and Anh 2015); ⁵(Marinho et al. 2013); ⁶(El-Tawil, 2010); ⁷(Silva et al. 2015); ⁸(Marinho et al. 2013); ⁹(Azaza et al. 2008); ¹⁰(Ergün et al. 2009); ¹¹(Kut Güroy et al. 2007); ¹²(Wassef, El Masry, and Mikhail 2001); ¹³(Guerreiro et al. 2019); ¹⁴(Shpigel et al. 2018); ¹⁵ (Vizcaíno et al. 2016); ¹⁶(Emre et al. 2013); ¹⁷(Mustafa, 1995); ¹⁸(Nakagawa, Kasahara, and Sugiyama 1987); ¹⁹(Güroy et al. 2011); ²⁰(Yildirim et al. 2009); ²¹(Wassef, El-Sayed, and Sakr 2013); ²²(Valente et al. 2006); ²³(Wassef, 2005); ²⁴(Martínez-Antequera et al. 2021); ²⁵(Dashi Zhu et al. 2016); ²⁶(Cerezo et al. 2022); ²⁷(Sáez et al. 2020); ²⁸(Vizcaíno et al. 2019); ²⁹(Asino, Ai, and Mai 2011); ³⁰(Rama Nisha et al. 2014); ³¹(Cruz, 2019); ³²(Madibana et al. 2017); ³³(Elizondo-González et al. 2018); ³⁴(Laramore et al. 2018); ³⁵(Qiu, Neori, et al. 2017); ³⁶(Macey, 2021); ³⁷(Santizo-Taan, Bautista-Teruel, and Maquirang 2020); ³⁸(Ansary et al. 2019); ³⁹(Bansemer, Qin, Harris, Duong, Hoang, et al. 2016)⁴⁰ (Bansemer, Qin, Harris, Duong, Currie, et al. 2016); ⁴¹(De Viçose et al. 2012); ⁴²(Suckling et al. 2022); ⁴³(Masasa et al. 2021); ⁴⁴(Cyrus et al. 2015); ⁴⁵(Floreto, Teshima, and Ishikawa 1996); ⁴⁶(Cyrus et al. 2015); ⁴⁷(Prato et al. 2018); ⁴⁸(Shpigel et al. 2018); ⁴⁹(Irfan et al. 2022); ⁵⁰(Joaquina Ibarra-Arana et al. 2018); ⁵¹(Anisuzzaman et al. 2018).

Table 5. Ulva biorefinery. Co-production of various ingredients from Ulva and their transformation to additional products.

Species	Directly co-extracted products	Products produced by transformation of Ulva-derived ingredients	Reference
U. lactuca	Water-soluble proteins and carbohydrates		(Postma et al. 2018)
U. lactuca	Protein and carbohydrates	Glucose, rhamnose and xylose, acetone, butanol, ethanol, and 1,2-propanediol	(Bikker et al. 2016)
U. fasciata	Mineral rich liquid extract, lipid, ulvan, and cellulose	Ethanol	(Trivedi et al., 2015)
U. lactuca	Mineral rich liquid, lipid, ulvan, protein, and cellulose		(Gajaria et al., 2017)
U. lactuca	Water-soluble carbohydrates	Acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE)	(van der Wal et al., 2013)
U. rigida	Carbohydrate, salt, concentrated protein		(Pezoa-Conte et al., 2015)
U. ohnoi	Salt, pigment, ulvan, and protein		(Glasson et al., 2017)
U. lactuca	Mineral rich liquid extract, ulvan, protein	Methane	(Mhatre et al., 2019)
U. ohnoi	Salts, starch, lipids, ulvan, proteins, and cellulose.		(Prabhu et al., 2019)
Mix of U. rigida and U. fascia	Hydrochar, 5-HMF, monosaccharides, proteins, peptides.	Ethanol	(Polikovsky et al. 2020)
U. ohnoi	Mixture of monosaccharides	Ethanol	(Jiang et al., 2016)
U. ohnoi	Starch, proteins, and minerals		(Prabhu et al., 2019)
U. ohnoi	Hydrochar	Polyhydroxyalkanoates	(Ghosh et al., 2021)
U. lactuca	Polysaccharides, proteins		(Andrade et al. 2022)
Mix of Ulva species	Monosaccharides		(Robin et al., 2017)
Ulva sp. not defined	Polysaccharides	Biodiesel	(Ruangrit et al., 2023)
U. ohnoi	Hydrochar, monosaccharides	Polyhydroxyalkanoates	(Steinbruch et al., 2020)
U. lactuca	Antioxidants and phenolic compounds		(Rashad et al. 2023)
Ulva sp. not defined	Ulvan	Biogas, polyhydroxyalkanoates	(Arul Manikandan and Lens 2023)
Ulva rigida and Ulva ohnoi	Water-soluble and -insoluble protein		(Robin et al., 2018)
U. lactuca	Bio-oil, hydrochar	Bioethanol	(Sharmiladevi, Swetha, and Gopinath 2023)

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