**1. Introduction**

Alginate was first described in the 1880s by the British chemist E.C.C Stanford after extracting it from seaweed using a rudimentary ion exchange method [1]. After the commencement of commercial production in the late 1920s, alginate became a widely used substance in several industries due to it numerous useful and nontoxic attributes. By the middle of the twentieth century, alginate was a major contributor to the food industry as a food-stabilizer. Today, Alginate-derived products contribute to the seaweed industry which had an annual production value of over \$4.1 billion USD in 2017 [2].
