Lead institution:
University of Gothenburg (UGOT) – Sweden
The fast-growing land-based aquaculture and seafood processing industry generate large amounts of nutrient-rich wastewater, posing a high cost for discharge and environmental impact. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for new resources intended for carbon-neutral production of food, material and energy.
The ability of microalgae to perform photosynthesis and efficiently convert dissolved nutrients into valuable biomass could contribute to solving this dual problem.
The overall objective of the SEAlgaePower is to develop microalgae-based technologies to clean wastewater from the aquaculture and seafood processing industry while simultaneously producing biomass for novel ingredients in a sustainable way. The specific aims are to:
(i) select suitable microalgae species/strains from the North and the Mediterranean Sea in a lab-scale cultivation system based on the ability to grow in different wastewater types;
(ii) develop pilot-scale algae cultivation protocols and wastewater cleaning;
(iii) develop biorefinery protocols for protein, lipid and carbohydrate recovery from the microalgal biomass;
(iv) develop microalgae-based prototypes and ingredients;
(v) assess environmental and socioeconomic aspects associated with the project solutions on wastewater cleaning, microalgae cultivation and biomass valorisation, and
(vi) maximise the project impact, visibility, and legacy.
SEAlgaePower consortium consists of fourteen partners from eight countries with well defined roles according to their expertise. UGOT, NORCE and UNIPA will provide microalgae strains. UGOT will employ a twostage cultivation in laboratory conditions and select those strains which in combination with wastewater from salmon aquaculture and process water from the seafood industry (Klädesholmen SeaFood) give the highest biomass yield and the cleanest water. NORCE and DTI will scale-up the cultivation in wastewater from salmon aquaculture (Ragn-Sells and NFH, respectively), and optimize it for selected microalgae to achieve maximal nutrient removal via conversion to proteins, omega-3 fatty acids, carbohydrates, and carotenoids.
The biomass will be sequentially fractionated by UAveiro together with Chalmers and DTI. Depending on the composition of different fractions, prototypes and ingredients will be developed for fibers in Medtech (RISE), fish feed (DTI), food (Chalmers), and fertiliser (NIBIO). The bio-activities of the extracts will be tested by UNIPA and UAveiro for use as ingredients in MedTech, nutra- and pharmaceuticals.
Environmental and socio-economic assessment of the project, dissemination of the results to stakeholders and public will be performed by Blue EcoTech, SITES, and ISP.
SEAlgaePower will contribute to establish a EU climate-neutral, sustainable, resilient blue economy, leveraging microalgaebased technologies which can turn a current cost of seafood producing and processing companies into an income source through valorization of their wastewaters.
Start Date:1/1/2025
End Date: 31/12/2028
Lead Contact: Cornelia Spetea Wiklund (cornelia.spetea.wiklund@bioenv.gu.se)