Unlocking the potential of aquatic bioresources

New bio-based products and services are being brought to the market thanks to the work of the 49 projects funded by H2020 Blue Bioeconomy ERA-Net COFUND, creating value in the blue bioeconomy.

The blue bioeconomy is an essential factor in our sustainable future, but we are still just scratching the surface of what is possible in the aquatic domain. It is widely recognized that to achieve fully circular aquaculture, sheries, and blue bioeconomy overall, we need to both valorise waste and side streams, and incorporate novel ingredients.

e level of ambition in the EU Green Deal is high. In Europe we wish to increase and better utilise bioresources while conserving biodiversity, ensuring resilient ecosystems, providing nutritious and healthy food, and tackling climate change. It is generally recognised that a systemic approach to nding solutions is needed, as value chains across sectors are intertwined and optimising one or a few elements may cause unwanted outcomes in other areas. With the development of integrated value webs that use interconnected rather than linear processes, the economy will be more circular, sustainable, and secure, with more regional employment. To identify new and to improve existing ways of bringing bio-based products and services to the market and to nd new ways of creating value in the blue bioeconomy 49 research and innovation projects have been funded for EUR43 million since 2018. With a range of ministries and funding agencies from 17 European countries as partners, the EU Horizon 2020 ERA-Net COFUND Blue Bioeconomy (BlueBio) has worked to strengthen Europe’s position in the blue bioeconomy.

To have true impact, research and innovation must be funded all through the value chain. It is not only about resource management and broodstock, feed development and sensor technology, but also about improving supply systems, logistics, product development and market research. e funded projects must run in an integrated manner, where they are international, cross-sectorial, and include both research and industry partners, thereby increasing the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and covering multiple parts of the blue bioeconomy value chain. Running such a project is complex, but from the complexity comes novel solutions. e 39 research and innovation projects funded by BlueBio cover all aspects of the blue bioeconomy, all parts of the value chain and TRLs up to pilot scale, leading to numerous biobased products and services that will be or are being brought to the market. One of the most promising avenues in the blue bioeconomy is algae. Macroalgae, better know as seaweed, and microalgae are a diverse group of aquatic organisms that hold a wealth of opportunities.

The green future of the blue bioeconomy

BlueBio has funded projects that work with both micro– and macroalgae, from the wild and from aquaculture. e project MINERVA (Coordinator: Dagmar Stengel, National University of Ireland, Galway) has developed novel algal extracts for food bres (binding, gelling), food ingredients, seaweed-based cosmetics, antifouling agents, and avour extracts from knotted kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) and sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) . ere are new extraction methods aiding puri cation of bioactives and new enzymes, in addition to protocols and tests for brown and red seaweed bres in food applications. Two products are prototyped, an antioxidant and anti-enzymatic cream with seaweed and 3D printable ink for algal hydrogel lattice structure for wound healing, showing the diversity of potential applications.

Even for well-known seaweed species like Saccharina latissimi and tangle (Laminaria hyperborean), we need better understanding of their biochemical properties. e project SNAP (Coordinator: Håvard Sletta, SINTEF AS) has developed biopolymer production of fucoidan, laminaran, alginate and cellulose, with functionalised alginate for tissue engineering and structural fucoidan and carrageenan variants for anti-viral and anti-in ammatory sulfated polysaccharide properties. ere were very interesting results on nano brillar and -crystalline cellulose for advanced nanomaterials and composites and stipe foams with ultra-low density for packaging and insulation. In Marikat (Coordinator: Gudmundur Hreggvidsson, MATIS), new catalytic enzymes and enzymatic processes from the marine microbiome were used to re ne marine seaweed biomass. ey developed transglucosidases for food, pharma, and skincare, and laminarin and ulvan for commercial purposes.

Algae can be used to replace petroleum-based plastics. e close collaboration in the project between industry and researchers enabled the project PlastiSea (Coordinator: Øystein Arlov, SINTEF AS) to develop high-purity polysaccharide fractions and “crude” polysaccharide fractions for bioplastic lms. With protocols for extraction of alginate and cellulose and infrastructure for large-scale processing of seaweed-based food packaging they have produced both cellulose/ alginate composite bio bres and ultrathin 2D nanosheets, and seaweed-based bioplastic lms of up to 1 m and prototypes of transparent exible lms.

Low-trophic future: insects of the sea

Low-trophic animals are, together with plants, the sustainable solution to our food security. To waste less resources, ensure circularity, and follow the food rst principle, more low-trophic animals must be included both as food and feed. e most notable low-trophic animals on land are insects, which are not present in the aquatic realm, but there are many other options. e project InEVal (Coordinator: Matthew Slater, Alfred Wegener Institute) produced commercial quantities of sea star meal that could replace sh meal. ey also developed protocols for sea urchin enhancement in land-based holding systems and enhanced sea urchin roe for food applications, and tested sea cucumbers grown under salmon cages.

Another promising low-trophic animal is the polychaete or ragworm. e project SIDESTREAM producing protein and lipid fractions from polychaete worms and gammarids and astaxanthin from batch fermentation in bioreactors with Corynebacterium glutamicum on aquaculture-based media. It is notable that the Life Cycle Assessment of polychaete meal from aquaculture waste show a 23 lower environmental impact than the linear approach. ere is untapped potential in valorising RAS waste-streams. e waste-streams can be used for in-situ production of novel proteinaceous and high nutritional value sh feed consisting of algae, duckweed, bio oc (microorganisms) and insects, as was done in AquaTech4Feed (Coordinator: Giorgos Markou, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation – Demeter). Circularity and low-trophic go hand in hand, as the work in BlueCC shows. In BlueCC (Coordinator: Runar Gjerp Solstad, NOFIMA AS), researchers used market driven concept development of sustainable marine collagen and chitin/chitosan demonstrators from invasive marine species like crabs, by-catch jelly sh, and star sh and cleaner sh from aquaculture to extract collagen from skin and produce collagen spiked yoghurt, and extract chitin for chitosan-pectic hydrogels for encapsulation purposes.

Results from a project co-ordinated by SINTEF Ocean revealed that polychaetes, a (usually) marine worm, can provide valuable protein and lipid fractions as well as astaxanthin. Polychaete meal can also replace fishmeal and fish oil in fish feeds.

(Coordinator: Andreas Hagemann, SINTEF Ocean) produced polychaete meal, gammarid meal, and bacterial meals for sh and shrimp feed and as replacements for sh meal or sh oil or as attractants. Rearing protocols were developed for marine polychaete, gammarid shrimp, and Corynebacterium glutamicum to optimise biomass production, resource utilisation and production of high nutritional value fatty acids and astaxanthin, including processing technology for

Biobased solutions in a circular economy

The circular bioeconomy has potential for applications outside food and feed. There is a large range of blue biobased health applications from wound healing to antibiotics. The project SuReMetS (Coordinator: Jeanette Hammer Andersen, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway) developed three food-grade high-value protein ingredients from biorefining of low-value fish biomass with promising bioactive ingredients against metabolic syndromes in humans. The Project MedSpon (Coordinator: Joachim Henjes, Alfred Wegener Institute) improved RAS technology for sponges and produced sponge extracts for antibiotics and that worked against the ESKAPE (a group of six highly virulent and antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens) panel. In the project AquaHeal3D (Coordinator: Karin Giljam, Regenics AS) scientists developed a completely marine, 3D printed wound healing hydrogel dressing called Collex, where the bioactive substance came from unfertilized salmon roe. The wound healing agent is to dress burn wounds and hard-to-heal wounds and is ready for human trials. e richness of circularity can be seen in the diversity of applications from the same raw material. In the project Caseawa (Coordinator: Guiseppe Falini, Univeristà di Bologna) they used shery industry waste seashells from clams, scallops, and oysters to produce chemically and physically functionalised biogenic calcium carbonate particles (FbCCP). ey found the biogenic calcium carbonate (bCC) could be converted to apatite for use in bone substitutes, which reduced energy costs and CO2 emissions, but also that the particles (FbCCP) can be sustainable and e ective electrically conductive particles that can serve as antistatic agents in Levirex® compounds and meet the ISO standards for antistatics in shoe soles and ller in polymeric compounds.

Blue, bio-based solutions for the future

ere are tremendous opportunities to sustainably solve the most pressing current issues with blue, bio-based solutions. From a selection of the projects funded by BlueBio, new innovative uses have been developed of underutilised algae species, and waste material from sheries and aquaculture to achieve zero waste. More of the marine microbiome is understood and there are new synergies with land-based production in areas such as food and feed production and processing, biore ning, bioenergy, biomaterials, chemicals, and nutrients.

To improve aquaculture and wild harvesting of stocks, we need innovative feeds, improved broodstocks, new species, and to encourage the adoption of novel production technologies. is will ensure the sustainable future of the blue bioeconomy. In the coming years, results will be published and brought to the market by the 49 BlueBio projects. If you are interested in exploring the results further, you can nd the projects on the BlueBio website or individual project websites. ere are also individual factsheets made for each project, that highlight the commercialisation potential and needs. If you are an investor or accelerator, you can look at our website to nd the factsheets sorted by topic like algae, health, food, feed, sheries, and others.

Ingeborg Korme, Coordinator, H2020 Blue Bioeconomy ERA-Net COFUND, iko@forskningsradet.no, https://bluebioeconomy.eu

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