Macro Value

There is an increasing demand for new sustainable marine sources for products within food, feed, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and the energy sector. The European seaweed – or macroalgae - industry relies on wild harvest and growth is limited by ecological sustainability considerations. But large scale macroalgae cultivation can satisfy this demand. However, macroalgae cultivation needs increased knowledge and understanding of seasonal variation of growth rates and biological content development. This lack of knowledge is one of the main obstacle in making large scale production of macroalgae economically feasible. In addition there is a need to develop cost effective and energy efficient methods for ensuring a storage stability.

A thorough understanding of seasonal variation will allow an optimization of the seasonal cultivation for the extraction and conversion into final high quality value added products.

MacroValue sought to address following 4 main challenges

1. Seasonal variation

2. Optimization of seeding

3. Storage stability

4. Product applications

MacroValue addressed these challenges and came up with concrete solutions through state of the art information collection and analysis, method development for storing and extraction processes, and market tests together with commercial end-users

Project Partners

Matís, Hortimare and Ocean Rainforest

Funding

MacroValue was funded through a grant agreement between the co-operating partners and Nordic Innovation, and between Hortimare and Innovation Norway. The total budget for the project is 7,9 mio. NOK, of which the co-operating partners finance 50%.