YYou can just see the buoys from the seafarm. Dr Sophie Steinhagen shouts loudly over the high whine coming from the boat as the boat approaches the small islands of Sweden’s Koster archipelago. Steinhagen drops the engine to a sputter and raises a rope so that you can see the harvest beneath: strands after strands of sea lettuce, translucent, and emerald.
She exclaims that this is one of the individuals we would keep and collect as a parent. It grows very quickly. These waters are filled with yachts and sea-kayakers from Norway. However, in summer Steinhagen and her seafarming group can be found here. Tjrn Marine LaboratorySpring is their peak season.
It means that there is less animal and plant life in the seaweed. Seaweed is no different. You don’t want to have crab eggs or snail eggs. Additionally, spring is the best time to harvest sea lettuce for protein.
Experts believe that seaweed could actually be a key crop for the future. protein shiftAvoid meat. The last spring’s harvest contained around 30% protein, close enough to rival meats and other protein sources.
Steinhagen is also passionate about the idea that sea lettuce can be a more sustainable and sustainable alternative to soya. Sea lettuce doesn’t require a lot of land and freshwater.
On a bench near the Tjrn Marine Laboratory’s greenhouses, she said that there was no other option. Climate change is affecting many of our crop systems, and we urgently need new production. We can’t extend terrestrial farmland, so we must go to the ocean.
It’s more than a protein source. Seaweed could provide many of the compounds that we need as we shift to a more bio-based economy from one that is fueled by fossil-fuels.
Ulrica Edlund (Steinhagen’s collaborator at KTH Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm is a professor of plastic science and has used polysaccharides taken from seaweed to produce plastic films, filaments, or other plastic materials. It is circular because it offers a way to move away from fossil-based plastics. Edlund says that this allows you to harvest biomass that can be grown at a high rate in oceans. You don’t have to wait for the forest to grow before you can harvest these polymers.
These advances are being used by new startup packaging companies to create seaweed-based plastics. Like the UK’s Notplaor the US company SwayEven though there are some challenges, seaweed plastics can absorb water rather than repel it, making them a formless slime.
Seaweed farming is still very young, even though it is located outside of Asia. However, the techniques Steinhagens’ team helped to develop are being applied more widely. Nordic Sea FarmsA company that was spun off from the laboratory has been growing sugar kelp for many years and has seen an increase in demand from local restaurants as well as biomaterials startups. It launched an EU-funded programme in October to develop commercial sealet cultivation at Ottern or Otter Island, 20km further down the coast towards Gothenburg.
We are not aware of any sea-based cultivation. Ulva [sea lettuce]Gran Nylund, who was a researcher at the marine laboratory and co-founded it, said that the company is now up-and-running commercially.
The first 20km of seeded ropes will go out this fall, with the first harvest expected next year.
Seaweed plantations have begun to sprout all along Europe’s Atlantic coasts and North Sea coastlines. In Norway, there are at least seven seaweed farms. There are currently seven seaweed farming companies in Norway. Ocean Rainforest, perhaps Europes leading seaweed producer. Others have sprouted elsewhere in Europe, including the Netherlands, Belgium and France, as well as the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and France. Even emerging multinationals exist: Dutch-owned The Seaweed CompanyFarms are operated in India, Morocco, and Ireland.
Despite all this, Europe still produces a small amount of seaweed in the world: only 90% Seaweed market worth 14 billionSeaweed farms are found in Asia, where they take up entire bays in Japan and China.
The EU produces just 1,000 tonnes of seaweed annually, compared with 35m tonnes globally. However, Systemiq has argued that it could be as high as 8m tonnes by the end of the decade.
First, you have to locate the water area. This is a difficult task in Asia, Nyland said of the barriers. We need technical development. [Asian countries]This has been a long-standing tradition, but [some]Low-income countries are also available, so their methods may not be suitable for us. Our salaries are too high.
The Seaweed Companys is experimenting with growing seaweed in between offshore wind turbines in North Sea. This is one way to get more sea access. Some companies are also developing their own seaweed harvesting equipment to make the job easier. However, there is no seaweed equivalent to a combine harvester and tractor that you can purchase off the shelf.
Steinhagen, who is part of Tjrn at the University of Gothenburg is hard at work to improve seaweed strains to increase their productivity, just like terrestrial crops have been improved over many centuries. She says that we want to find strains with a high growth rate and high protein content. This can be achieved by genetic selection, strain selection using the traditional horticultural methods, but we can also choose for other nutrients that could enrich the protein content.
She shows her seaweed kindergarten in the laboratories: rows of cylindrical bubbling tanks where she breeds new varieties, creates new clones, and plants plants on twine rolls. The twine is then wrapped around the ropes and laid out at sea.
She points out that the outer edges are brownish and that’s where they release the swarmers. She also showed me a container of sexually mature seaweed. It’s like sperm, they have flagella and can move.
This is only one piece of the puzzle. Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg is working with a team to extract the protein the most economically and efficiently. Prof Ingrid Undeland was the research coordinator. Blue Food, Swedens Centre for Future SeafoodAccording to, seaweed is trending more and more, but she would like it to leave high-end New Nordic restaurants, vegan food stores, and be sold as a commodified bulk powder like the ones made from soya, milk, or pea used to make vegetarian mince.
She admits that the new product will have a slightly more marine flavour profile than the almost tasteless soy protein and whey proteins. It might be difficult to make a vanilla smoothie without tasting of anything. However, if you are looking to make a savoury product with umami and saltiness as well as marine flavour, this could be an advantage.
Seaweed protein is more spreadable than protein from soya or pea plants. Instead of being concentrated in specific bodies in the beans or pea cells, the protein is spread out more widely both inside and outside the plants. The weak alkali used to extract the protein makes it more difficult to reach.
Joo Trigo, a PhD student at Undelands Lab, is working on improving extraction methods. He claims that he can extract 10% of sea lettuce’s protein. Dried sea lettuce contains at most 30% protein. That means that 100g of sea lettuce would yield only three grams of protein.
He holds up the final product of his labors in his office: a test tube containing small amounts of green crystalline flakes. This took him a whole sack sea lettuce to make. He estimates that we might end up with 40g dried protein isolate if we start off with 10kg of fresh sea leaf. This means that there is still a lot to do.
Edlund and he agree on a biorefinery method. First, remove the protein. Next, remove other useful substances, such as thickening agent used in food industry and then polysaccharides that are used to make plastics. The rest could be used as biofuel.
Edlund states that it would be a shame for this biomass to be thrown away.
There are so many advanced molecules in the universe that nature has created. So why not make use of them?
Steinhagen is certain that her pilot farm will be the beginning of a new industry. She says that people always laugh at someone who does new things. Today, electricity is available and cars are available. It takes time.
