ERA-NET: Biorefinery and biotechnological exploitation of marine biomass

The now completed project Mar3Bio has consisted of partners from Norway (NTNU, SINTEF, DuPont), Sweden (Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Italy (University of Trieste), Slovenia (National Institute of Chemistry and Iceland (Matís). The marine biomasses to be used in Mar3Bio are brown algae and crustacean byproducts. These abundant but underexploited renewable biomasses have great potential for production of high value biomolecules. The current bottlenecks for a bio-refinery focusing on these raw materials are low yields, high energy consumption and incomplete spectrum of recovered biomolecules. Mar3Bio will tackle this by a multidisciplinary and intersectorial R&D approach, and contribute to the development of efficient and sustainable bio-refinery processes for exploitation of the selected biomasses. The main objective is to advance technology beyond state-of-the-art to I) increase the yield and quality of the products arising from early process streams by optimizing the isolation and fractionation steps performed on the raw materials, and II) modify selected fractionated biomolecules to high value products. The expected achievements will have great impact on the fulfilment of the ambitions of ERA-MarineBiotech. The use of enzymes has been a central objective to make the biomass processing more effective as well as economically and environmentally sustainable. An important prerequisite has been to gain a greater understanding of the structure of the biomasses and how the individual components (carbohydrates, proteins, pigments, minerals, etc.) are distributed and bound in the biomasses. This has involved the use of a combination of advanced chemical, spectrophotometric and microscopic techniques, requiring novel tools and methodology. For brown algae the work in Mar3Bio has had a particular high relevance for the industry, and has contributed to improved processes, a greater understanding of the biomass and side streams, and in time an expanded product portfolio. A continuous focus and strength of the project has been the established routines for the preparation and distribution of high-quality and well-characterized materials for experimental work at the partner laboratories. This has been necessary to ensure that results obtained are directly comparable and has increased the impact of the scientific output. To ensure good communication, all partners have met in person twice per year and have monthly skype meetings to report progress and plans, and a common project archive has been established for storing and sharing data. Mar3Bio has generated over 30 scientific publication, has been involved in the education of several master- and Ph.D. students, and has had numerous presentations/posters at conferences and meetings with relevant research environments and industry.

Mar3Bio har gitt nye resultater av betydning både for involverte partnere og for øvrige interessenter innen forskning og industriell utnyttelse av biomasse fra makroalger og skalldyr. Dette er dokumentert gjennom mer enn 25 vitenskapelige publikasjoner og presentert i en rekke internasjonale konferanser. Mar3bio konsortiet arrangerte den internasjonale konferansen Seaweeed applications i 2019. Prosjektet har gitt ny kunnskap om de studerte biomassene, både råvaren og avfallsstrømmer. Nye verktøy for karakterisering har blitt etablert. Mar3Bio prosjektet har bidratt til utvikling av enzymer og bruk av disse i prosessering av marin biomasse. For skalldyr er det jobbet med nye prosesser for bioraffinering samt med å etablere teknologi og gjennomført oppskalert GMP pilotproduksjon av ett bestemt produkt med kommersielt potensial. Samarbeidet tas nå videre i flere nye prosjekter. Resultater fra Mar3Bio er viktig for forskningen i den Nasjonale kunnskapsplattformen for bioraffinering av tare

Brown algae and crustacean shells are abundant marine biomasses containing valuable compounds with unique biological, physical/chemical and mechanical properties. The harvesting of brown algae along the coast of Norway alone exceeds 150 000 tons annually with minimal environmental impact (<0.3 % of the standing stock). Additionally there is an increasing attention towards seaweed cultivation and integrated aquaculture as a supplementary biomass resource. Global aquaculture and catch of crustaceans yield > 10 million tons of biomass annually and the considerable amount of shells from this industry is currently a waste byproduct. The most important products with exploitable properties are the complex polysaccharides alginate, fucoidan, laminaran (algae) and chitosan (crustacean), respectively. These polysaccharides serve important multi-sectorial growing markets and are manufactured in large quantities, i.e. 38 000 and 13 000 tons per year for alginate and chitosan, respectively. Still, there is a wide consensus on the idea that applications with higher added value for these polysaccharides are at hand. The current bottlenecks for expanded applications relate to the processes for their extraction and recovery which suffer from low yields and generate large amounts of non-utilized waste streams, e.g. at present up to 80% of the valuable components from the harvested algal biomass goes to waste i.e. the potential for increased value creation is substantial.