NEWS
(Photo: WUR)
SeaSolv enables waste-free biorefinery of seaweed Seaweeds ('macroalgae') are rich in valuable nutrients for food, nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals. However, these are not easily extracted. In the SeaSolv project, Wageningen University & Research (WUR), together with international partners, has developed an innovative waste-free method for the multi-product biorefinery of these substances. This will use a new class of solvents: deep eutectic solvents (DES). Seaweed is a promising but underutilised green feedstock in Europe. It is mainly commercially exploited for food and for the production of phycocolloids (thickening agents). But industrial production is complex and inefficient and also uses acid and alkaline conditions,
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many chemicals and a lot of water and energy. This generates a considerable amount of waste, as other components are destroyed during the extraction of the phycocolloids. Even some of the phycocolloids themselves are degraded. Meanwhile, several new extraction techniques have been developed, for instance using ultrasound, microwaves, enzymes, homogenisation and supercritical extraction. These are still in their infancy and also have many drawbacks: they are expensive, have low yields, affect the final product and are difficult to scale up.
Green solvents
In SeaSolv, a more sustainable and
cost-effective process will be developed that will allow the seaweed industry to significantly reduce its carbon footprint. The process uses deep eutectic solvents (DES). This new class of sustainable solvents offers many advantages, including low price, low toxicity and often biodegradability. They can be 'customised' and are even switchable during a desired process. DES therefore represent a potential alternative to conventional organic solvents. They allow various components to be extracted from biomass one by one in a gentle manner, while maintaining the functionality of the end products. The result is a multi-product biorefinery
