Algae: A versa­tile source of raw mate­rial

The colour blue is very special. The French painter Yves Klein became world-famous for his use of mono­chrome blue, as seen in the wall-high relief at the Musik­the­ater in Gelsenkirchen. However, colour does not only play a special role in art, but also in the world of food, with blue-coloured foods in the minority. With that in mind, the special edition blue bear released to mark the mile­stone birthday of a well-known fruit gum manu­fac­turer was a real eye-catcher.

Instead of the synthetic food colouring Bril­liant Blue FCF (E133), the colouring agent phyco­cyanin, derived from microalgae, was used for the blue bear in ques­tion. It is derived from spir­ulina, which has been culti­vated in Germany for years. There is even an algae coop­er­a­tive, whose member compa­nies culti­vate spir­ulina. Among the members are former pig farmers who are now trying to estab­lish a new venture using microalgae.

New Fron­tiers with Spir­ulina

Despite the high expec­ta­tions, spir­ulina produc­tion in this country remains a diffi­cult under­taking, some­thing that Jan Dohrmann is well aware of. He is the managing partner of Aqua­mondis, a company which oper­ates a demon­stra­tion plant to produce spir­ulina on the roof of a data centre at the GreenTec Campus in Enge-Sande, North Frisia. The servers on the ground floor of the data centre run hot, and the heat is chan­nelled directly to the first floor, to a spir­ulina culture in extremely alka­line water within a shallow, covered tank.

Ulti­mately, it is climate-neutral, as the data centre is consis­tently powered by renew­able energy (wind, solar, biogas) from the North Frisian region. And its waste heat is used, completing the circular economy, helping proteins and pigments thrive. For Jan, spir­ulina repre­sents a new gener­a­tion of foods that offer a three­fold benefit – it does not require any arable land (which is becoming increas­ingly scarce), it is entirely inde­pen­dent of fossil fuels, and it is resilient in the face of dwin­dling water resources. Further­more, spir­ulina is report­edly 100 times more effi­cient than cattle farming in terms of protein produc­tion per hectare.

On this chilly day in early spring, however, the microalgae are not growing in Enge-Sande because the outside temper­a­tures are simply too low, and the climatic condi­tions are a limiting factor for growth. “At our sites in Central Europe, the best we can hope for is to break even,” states Jan. For this reason, he intends to relo­cate produc­tion to Cape Verde in the future – a bold under­taking requiring signif­i­cant invest­ment. However, he considers this step neces­sary because the Cape Verde Islands offer ideal condi­tions – solar radi­a­tion is twice as high, guar­an­teeing 365 days of produc­tion, compared with 125 days at the German sites.

Higher Produc­tivity Closer to the Equator

Instead of 15t/ha, up to 60t/ha can be harvested in Cape Verde. Further­more, elec­tricity is abun­dant from solar and wind energy on the Creole islands off West Africa. And the seawater there is at a constant average temper­a­ture of 24 degrees celsius, which, when treated in desali­na­tion plants, enables sustain­able water manage­ment. Existing fibre-optic infra­struc­ture also offers all the capa­bil­i­ties needed for digi­tally auto­mated process control in spir­ulina produc­tion; for example, Körber Tech­nolo­gies GmbH is already working on opti­mising spir­ulina produc­tion using AI algo­rithms.

Regard­less of the busi­ness chal­lenges, Jan believes there is a growing global market for spir­ulina, with demand for non-animal proteins increasing. Statis­tics show that sales amounted to €436m (£371m ) in 2022, and fore­casts suggest that this figure will rise to over one billion by the end of the decade.

While it remains to be seen how Jan’s exciting plans will pan out, ocean­BASIS GmbH is already firmly estab­lished in the market. The Kiel-based company employs around 20 people and produces a whole range of natural cosmetics from macroalgae under the brand name Ocean­well.

Oceans as a Source of Sustain­able Prod­ucts

Inez Linke PhD is a co-founder and co-owner of the inno­v­a­tive company. The marine biol­o­gist, along with her colleagues, has been working inten­sively since the 2000s to promote the sustain­able use of coastal waters – either for food and health or as renew­able raw mate­rials for processing in various indus­trial sectors. After numerous exper­i­ments and research projects like algae cultivation in the Kiel Fjord, Linke and her team even­tu­ally turned their atten­tion to extracting valu­able ingre­di­ents from macroalgae for use in cosmetics like skin creams.

“One kilo­gramme of algae contains the trace elements found in 10,000 litres of seawater,” Inez says. These include impor­tant substances like iodine, sele­nium or B12 – to name a few. “Unlike land plants, macroalgae do not absorb these trace elements through their roots, but exclu­sively through their leaves; that is why the biolog­ical concen­tra­tion is so high,” she explains.

The tech­nology devel­oped in-house for the fermen­ta­tion of algae extracts using special yeast cultures is arguably the key to the long-term success of ocean­BASIS GmbH.  “We want to become one of the five best-known natural cosmetics brands in Germany,” says Inez.

Although the scent of the Baltic Sea reaches the company head­quar­ters right on the Kiel Fjord, the company sources its raw mate­rials from an algae farm in Norway. Why? It’s quite simple – the Norwe­gians are leaders in marine aqua­cul­ture, and the algae thrive in cold water.

Balancing Vast Poten­tial with Prac­tical Use

Although the company aims to grow, for Inez and her team, sustain­able use of the sea is the foun­da­tion of every­thing they do, and they aim to give back to marine life, with 10c (10p) from the sale of every Ocean­well product going towards marine conser­va­tion. “We must not take more from the sea than it can provide,” warns Inez. “Through our ‘Protect the Ocean’ initia­tive, we actively support marine conser­va­tion projects like the protec­tion of endan­gered sea turtles in Cape Verde and the recovery of ghost nets from the Baltic Sea.”

Yet the sustain­able poten­tial offered by the sea is far from fully realised. Some pioneers in the algae industry see great oppor­tu­ni­ties in the expan­sion of offshore wind energy, where algae farms could be estab­lished to make effec­tive use of the struc­tures.

Algae are also attracting interest as a ‘blue phar­macy’ for global medi­cine – espe­cially given that there are an esti­mated 400,000 species. Although marine active ingre­di­ents are not a miracle cure, they do offer exciting alter­na­tives for the treat­ment of diseases – thanks to their anti-tumour ingre­di­ents. However, until this becomes a reality in prac­tice, great efforts in research and devel­op­ment are still required. And one thing is already clear – in these uncer­tain times on land, algae is inspiring more and more pioneers. Just as the art of Yves Klein once did.