Dr Craig Rose has established and run marine related businesses, and been involved in marine research for the past 10 years.
He has managed multi-million pound marine development projects, including a £3.7million algal biofuel project. He is a guest lecturer at Newcastle University, within the School of Marine Science and technology. He is currently heading the Seaweed Health Foundation and advising on a number of seaweed related projects.
Here he explores the commercial advantages of cultivating seaweed for commercial use:
“Investment from mainly public funding has bought these markets to where they are today with over $1billion of research money invested in a wide variety of projects, and increasing private sector investment is starting to see this effort commercialised. However, there is still plenty of opportunity and requirement for commercially focussed investment.
Seaweeds and micro-algae, have been receiving increasing interest and investment over recent years as a consequence of properties that make them highly relevant to multiple industries. These industries include:
• Biofuels - for biogas, bioethanol, biobutanol and biodiesel
• Life science and biomedical extracts for multiple purposes
• Food - health and wellness within the entire human food chain
These industries are listed above in this order for good reason - it is the order of apparent focus of investment, for example Exxon investing $600million in Synthetic Genomics for the development of algal biofuels.
However, the list is in the reverse of the state of market development, with algal biofuels being 15-20 years from reasonable scale commercialisation, whereas aspects of the life science and food industries are already in place, and with immense potential to grow.
In terms of energy and biofuels, this is where the main focus of investment to date has been. As seaweeds do not require freshwater, and do not compete for land with food crops or natural habitat they are far more sustainable than other sources of biomass (i.e. terrestrial plants); most commonly being either harvested from the wild and carefully regulated, or cultivated on ropes in offshore waters.
The regulatory and market pressures of biofuel sources are to be more sustainable, especially in the wake of increasing biofuel requirements, which are driving the level of global investment seen in micro- and macro-algal biofuel research and development.
The bulk of investment has come from governments, particularly in the USA which has developed a National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap. This, in recent years, has moved on to see the private sector investing in the commercialisation of algal biofuel technologies and the development of commercial facilities and operations that are starting some small-scale production, e.g. Solyzmes who in 2010 delivered 80,000litres of algal derived biodiesel and jet fuel.
However, the heavy investor focus on biofuels, as a consequence of the potential size of the markets involved, has distracted much of the attention away from the more immediate opportunities, and even existing markets for seaweed and seaweed derived products for pharma and nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and food and food ingredients. These include extracts such as fucoidans that may be used to fight cancer cells, or use of whole seaweeds as food ingredients that result in increased satiety.
In addition to public funded research of biofuels, there is also a significant proportion being invested in research of high-value life science extracts. Whilst the seaweed extraction of alginates has been an active industry for many years and at a very large scale, especially in Asia, it is a heavily commoditised market, being high volume : low value.
The innovation is coming from extracts such as fucoidins, laminarins, polyphenols and other extracts for use in biomedical applications where evidence is being developed as to the benefits for cancer treatments, wider health benefits and ingredients for a diverse range of applications.
The final market segment in the list is seaweed for the food, health and wellness industries. This market is a very traditional market in Asia, with seaweed being a staple food source. In parts of the UK also there is a tradition, although small scale, of eating certain species of seaweed.
The health benefits of seaweed, as well as the sustainability of harvest, make seaweed an attractive food and food ingredient. As such, there are a range of companies selling this whole food product to a variety of markets within the food, health and wellness industries.
This industry, whilst small, is real and growing. It is often ignored, possibly as a consequence of a perception of getting lost within a plethora of unsubstantiated health claims. However, there is a growing body of scientifically validated evidence that supports health claims and is driving innovation in the use of seaweeds as a food and food ingredient.
Furthermore, the market demand for the benefits seaweeds offer (including sodium reduction, tackling obesity, general nutrition and specific issues such as iodine deficiencies) is resulting in increasing demand for this product, and with support from main stream audiences; as highlighted by recent articles in The Times by Heston Blumenthal.
The research into seaweed as a food and food ingredient is being driven by the Seaweed Health Foundation, which is taking the often anecdotal evidence of the health and wellness benefits of seaweed, and, within its membership base and with Research Partners, has undertaken commercially focussed scientific research, as well as developing industry standards for seaweed harvest and processing. T
he Seaweed Health Foundation is removing key barriers through its research that will enable industry growth into the mainstream, and is developing standards to ensure quality and sustainability of seaweeds.
Overall, the investment and opportunity in research and development of seaweed markets is excellent and requires more commercial and private sector involvement. The plethora of intellectual assets that have, and continue to be developed by academic institutes and emerging companies are ripe for commercial exploitation to enable growth.
As with many new technologies and emerging markets, making the move from research and development to commercialisation requires the right investor skill set.
Finally, and common to all the industry sectors discussed above, another area all-too-often overlooked is the emerging bottleneck of the availability and sustainability of seaweed harvest.
If we take the UK, there is only one commercial operation in the UK harvesting wild seaweed and at a relatively low volume. There is no commercial scale cultivation of seaweed of any note as a consequence of the current cost of technology involved.
The wild harvest could not sustain the volumes of any of the markets discussed as they continue to develop and grow, and also several soon-to-be required species of seaweed are not allowed to be harvested from the wild for conservation reasons.
Consequently, there is some, but not enough, investment in developing large scale cultivation of seaweeds that will meet the market demands over the next 2-20 years as each market, from food to biofuels respectively, continues to be developed and grow. This investment is not only required in the technology and development of intellectual assets, but also the regulatory and planning systems that have never catered for this type of marine activity.
The support for seaweed industries is large, and growing, from the relevant organisations in the UK and overseas. For example, the Crown Estate, which owns most of the seabed around the UK shores, is highly supportive of seaweed cultivation for bioenergy, having invested in the 6.3million Euro Biomara project. What is needed now, and where there is opportunity, is a joined-up commercially focussed strategy for investment into the various seaweed market developments, and to ensure the entire supply chain can meet these market demands.”
b cole, usa around 1 year ago