Algae & Algal Products

Algae, from natural sources or grown in bioreactors, can fuel a vibrant independent industry, integrate into other industry sectors, and even help mitigate climate change. Maine’s diversity of algal resources, combined with world-class research expertise, create a unique opportunity to be a leading source of sustainable, algae-based products.

Goal 1: Research Objective
Improve tools to reduce the cost of algae cultivation and develop algae-based alternatives in a variety of products and industries, including bio-manufacturing, biochemicals, biomedical research, and renewable energy.
Goal 2: Enterprise Objective
Catalyze the growth of a vibrant manufacturing industry that uses advanced technologies to lower the entry barrier to use of new and diverse algae-based products and processes.
Goal 3: Workforce Objective
Help the algae industry expand and diversify its workforce by creating new production and manufacturing jobs at facilities making innovative algae-based products.
Goal 4: Climate Change Objective
Identify and develop algae products and processes that reduce carbon dioxide emissions to help Maine reach its 2045 carbon-neutrality goal, and increase exports of climate-friendly products and practices.

Curiosity-based algal science has enabled many significant scientific and societal advances. For example, algal germplasms serve as a living library and have been instrumental in understanding evolutionary relationships among algal lineages (e.g., Brawley et al., 2017; Caron et al. 2016; Sexton and Lomas, 2018). Access to these germplasm collections allows researchers to reevaluate old questions using new knowledge and tools, suchas the previously underappreciated role of virus- mediated gene flow in microalgae evolution (Nelson et al. 2021). Collection holdings allow a revised look at mechanisms underlying the rise of multicellularity in marine algae, in comparison to mechanisms in plants and animals (Bringloe et al. 2020; Cock et al. 2010). Furthermore, algae are increasingly seen as contributors to solutions-based research, such as sequestering carbon dioxide through blue carbon storage (e.g., Krause-Jensen et al. 2018), amending livestock feed to reduce enteric methane production (e.g., Roque et al., 2019), remediating domestic waste streams (e.g., Cole et al., 2016; Li et al. 2019), and as sources of natural products for pharmaceuticals and industrial applications (e.g. Chu, 2012; Raposa et al. 2013). Living collections of algae are the cornerstone of this basic science, education and innovation infrastructure, which will inevitably lead to job growth in this and related sectors (National Academies of Sciences, 2020), and make it possible to address current scientific challenges of global importance. More importantly, these resources create the foundation for future research and discovery .

Opportunities & Objectives

Potential to meet multiple economic and social objectives.
Blue Carbon as it relates to algae, has the potential to play a role in Maine’s goal for carbon neutrality by 2045.
Microalgae has the potential to replace wild-harvest “fish meal, oil, and beneficial compounds” when it comes to producing feed for finfish aquaculture.
Algae have the potential to revalorize domestic and industrial waste streams through bioremediation, and thus producing lower cost “biomass” for bioenergy.
Algae have the potential to produce bio/ chemicals that replace synthetic chemicals and novel chemicals for a wide range of food system, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical applications.

Notable Maine Institutions & Organizations

Algae Foundation
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota,
Center for Seafood Solutions, Center for Algal Innovations)
PhytoSmart LLC
Running Tide
University of Maine School of Marine Sciences

Current Research

Finfish and shellfish feed replacements/ improvements
Algal-based bioplastics
Domestic wastewater remediation (microplastics and nutrients)
Novel biochemicals, including algae as a novel source of biochemicals
Carbon dioxide remediation processes including monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV)
Technology/hardware innovation to reduce cost of microalgae production

Future Priority Areas

Scalable production in Maine
Integration of algae as part of circular economies around other targeted technology sectors
Development of sustainable replacement products/processes leading to carbon neutrality
Life cycle assessment of microalgae production

Economic Impact

Commercial microalgae biomass production for food systems, currently dominated by production of Spirulina, supports $0.5 billion in global direct-use business due to the greater value per unit biomass.
The global omega-3 fatty acid market derived from cultured microalgae is roughly $3.5 billion.
Into the future, this diverse array of algae-based science and application research will likely continue to expand in both production volume and economic value through creation of new companies as has been seen in Europe upon their increased focus on algae.

References

Our Nutrient World: The Challenge to Produce More Food and Energy with Less Pollution. (2013). Global Overview of Nutrient Management. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh on Behalf of the Global Partnership on Nutrient Management and the International Nitrogen Initiative. https://www. unep.org/resources/report/our-nutrient-world- challenge-produce-more-food-and-energy-less- pollution

Prospects and challenges for industrial production of seaweed bioactives. (2015). Journal of Phycology, 51:821-837. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpy.12326

Extracellular metabolites from industrial microalgae and the biotechnological potential. (2016). Marine Drugs, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/md14100191

Adding value to the treatment of municipal wastewater through the intensive production of freshwater macroalgae. (2016). Algal research, 20:

100-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2016.09.026

Microalgae-based wastewater treatment for nutrients recovery: a review. (2019). Bioresource Technology 291: 121934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. biortech.2019.121934

Microalgae as feed ingredients for livestock production and meat quality: A review. (2017). Livestock Science, 205:111-121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. livsci.2017.09.020

Current Status of the Algae Production Industry in Europe: An Emerging Sector of the Blue Bioeconomy. (2021). Frontiers in Marine Science, 7:626389. https:// doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.626389

A Research Strategy for Ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal and Sequestration. (2022).

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. National Academies Press. https://doi. org/10.17226/26278