💎 The best of the week in Algae Tech💎
Japan's crops struggle, Algiecel receives $301,833, and how astronauts heading to Mars could enjoy fresh produce and grilled meat.
“I’d love to see more female-led businesses and I hope I can inspire others to be brave, audacious and follow their passion.” — Oceanium CEO, Karen Scofield Seal
Dear algae technologists - hello and welcome to the Paxtier Report!
To start the email this week, let’s take a moment to congratulate Karen Scofield Seal for being selected as the winner of the prestigious Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award 2023!
Find out more here.
In today’s report:
Markets: 💸 Record poor harvest drives down Japan seaweed output to 51-year low.
Deals: 🤝 Algiecel receives DKK 2.1 million (USD$301,833) from Horizon Europe.
Movers and Shakers: ⛷️ WNDR® Alpine is releasing a high performance, low impact activewear line.
Around the web: 🧑🚀 How astronauts heading to Mars could enjoy fresh produce and grilled meat.
Markets and Investing
✂️Algae Market Snippets
Some big moves in recent weeks…
General
💸 The money behind the coming wave of climate litigation. Those affected by environmental disasters are turning to the courts for redress, stoking debate about who should pay to bring the cases (Read more HERE).
🏛️ Strengthening The U.S. biomanufacturing sector through standardisation. The advancement and commercialisation of bioprocesses in the United States is hindered by a lack of suitable and available pilot-scale and manufacturing-scale facilities. Standardisation can help (Read more HERE).
🌊 CSIRO launches a $25 million Advanced Engineering Biology Future Science Platform – an investment in cutting-edge, transformative research to push the boundaries of science – and break through seemingly impossible problems (Read more HERE).
🌊 Cultured Supply just pushed the initial version of their Algae Supply Chain builder live. The team help companies, big and small, discover and source biobased chemicals, ingredients, materials, and products (Read more HERE).
💸 Check out the new Sea Forward Ocean Health Fund at ImpactAssets. This is a collaborative philanthropic endowment for the ocean that brings together donors of all sizes to promote ocean health through impact investing and grantmaking (Read more HERE).
🌱 Bumble and bumble’s new Bb. Seaweed collection is infused with royal sugar kelp, pacific sea kelp and green microalgae (Read more HERE).
Macroalgae
🌱 Record poor harvest drives down Japan seaweed output to 51-year low (Read more HERE).
📈 NOAA backs growth of Alaskan aquaculture sector (Read more HERE).
📈 New Bord Iascaigh Mhara strategy to boost volume of farmed seaweed in Ireland (Read more HERE).
🌱 In collaboration with Seaweed & Co., the Healy Group is expanding its plant-based seafood expertise using PureSea seaweed powders. (Read more HERE).
🌱Within the next five years, the Aboitiz Group and the Reimagine Seaweed team aim to reduce single-use plastics through the production of biodegradable and compostable packaging made from seaweed (Read more HERE).
🏆 Seafields has announced the success of its recent growth trials to determine whether or not Sargassum seaweed can be grown, controlled and domesticated (Read more HERE).
🤝 Just Eat partners with PepsiCo, Heineken and Notpla on reusable and bio-based solutions for Champions League final (Read more HERE).
💸 50km bridge to Zanzibar: Tanzania in ‘advanced talks’ with Chinese firm. If built, the bridge is expected to boost the island’s economy and support seaweed farmers (Read more HERE).
💸 Florida Tech receives $400,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency for Sargassum research (Read more HERE).
🌊 Tasmania green-lights research into offshore kelp farming (Read more HERE).
💸 Why big names are backing seaweed-based biostimulants. While Nestle has struggled to integrate significant quantities of seaweeds directly into their product portfolio they are promoting the use of seaweed-based biostimulants within their existing supply chains (Read more HERE).
🌱 Calbee, Inc. has released potato chips exclusively using nori seaweed produced in Saga Prefecture (Read more HERE).
💸 The Norwegian parliament has agreed to provide funding to the country's seaweed and kelp industry in order to boost growth and exports... (Read more HERE).
🌱 UK scientists use molecular priming tech to curb climate impacts on crops. Scientists at the James Hutton Institute and Ireland-based BioAtlantis will spearhead a new European research project called 'CropPrime', after securing funding worth one million euros (Read more HERE).
📈 Canada’s Prince William Sound sees bumper kelp harvest. Kelp farmers in Canada's Prince William Sound saw their harvest at least double on-year in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- cold water conditions... (Read more HERE).
🤝Seaweed Generation has gained support through the Farming Futures R&D Fund (Read more HERE).
🤝 Biosecurity New Zealand is teaming up with Mana Whenua and Northland Regional Council to stop the spread of exotic caulerpa seaweed (Read more HERE).
🌊 New project wants to set precedent for future wind farm, aquaculture collaborations. The project is situated in different locations off the coast of Germany, Denmark and Estonia (Read more HERE).
Microalgae
⛷️WNDR® Alpine is releasing the Phase Series, a high performance, low impact activewear line powered by ingredients derived from microalgae (Read more HERE).
🟢 Beckman Coulter Life Sciences launches industry’s first microbioreactor light array module to enable the cultivation of photosynthetically active microalgae and microorganisms (Read more HERE).
💸 Algiecel receives DKK 2.1 million (USD$301,833) from Horizon Europe (Read more HERE).
🏃 REI Co-op enters the running shoe business with the Swiftland MT, its first multi-terrain trail shoe designed using recycled and bio-based materials (Read more HERE).
💸 Devonian announces closing of a private placement of $1.2 million (Read more HERE).
🏆 Kemin receives EFSA positive opinion for algae ingredient (Read more HERE).
🏆 INNOAQUA, one of the newly funded Horizon Europe projects within the Farm-to-Fork strategy, officially kicks off. The project aims to demonstrate and support innovative algae-based foods and solutions (Read more HERE).
💪🏼 The team at WASM: MECE unveiled their new capability in scaling up biological process using a novel photo-bioreactor. The reactor’s unique gas recycling system was crafted by WASM:MECE experts and executed by Varicon Aqua (Read more HERE).
🐦Tweet of the week
🔥 What else was hot in algae tech this week?
General
🏢 The building materials of the future. Sustainable buildings of tomorrow will be made with waste and nature-based materials (Read more HERE).
🐄 Ekogea feed ingredient reduces ammonia by over 50% in pig slurry trials (Read more HERE).
🌱 Assessing the functional recovery of a marine macroalgal forest (Read more HERE).
🌍 Algae is a low-carbon source of protein but the EU is lagging in production (Read more HERE).
🐋 Threat to whales complicates US research into seaweed for biofuel (Read more HERE).
📝 (Paper) Iron limitation of kelp growth may prevent ocean afforestation (Read more HERE).
📝 (Paper) Dietary Ulva lactuca and CAZyme supplementation improve serum biochemical profile and hepatic composition of weaned piglets (Read more HERE).
🌱 Can British seaweed farms bloom? A nascent industry in which the country has some natural advantages (Read more HERE).
Microalgae
🟢 Microalgae extracts show potential to be developed into antioxidant and anti-pigmentation ingredients (Read more HERE).
📝 (Paper) Intra-population genomic diversity of the bloom-forming cyanobacterium, Aphanizomenon gracile, at low spatial scale (Read more HERE).
📝 (Paper) A novel effective bio-originated methylene blue adsorbent: the porous biosilica from three marine diatom strains of Nanofrustulum spp. (Bacillariophyta)(Read more HERE).
♻️ UC San Diego publishes book on algae-based biodegradable plastic to drive innovation and reduce greenwashing (Read more HERE).
🧑🚀 How astronauts heading to Mars could enjoy fresh produce and grilled meat (Read more HERE).
🧑🚀 How bioinks could help astronauts survive long space missions (Read more HERE).
🌍 Phenomenal phytoplankton: Scientists uncover cellular process behind oxygen production. One out of 10 breaths contains oxygen generated by cellular mechanism in microscopic algae (Read more HERE).
🏢 The ultimate eco building – made of salt, sunflowers and recycled urine. Is this recycling marvel in southern France the future of architecture? (Read more HERE).
That’s all folks!
Thanks again for joining us this week. Hope you have a great day and stay tuned for more algae tech updates soon!
Best,
Peter