The economics of large-scale seaweed cultivation

Ir. Patrice Vandendaele

AT~SEA Technologies, Belgium

AT~SEA Technologies, spin-off of AT~SEA project

1. Cultivation of Seaweed

2. Seaweed- Feedstock of the future

3. Focus on the following current & potential Markets

4. Environmental impact

5. The AT~SEA farm

6. SWOT analysis

7. AT~SEA Technologies

8. Questions

1. Cultivation of seaweed

Which seaweed?

• Brown seaweed (Kelp) – Saccharina latissima (sugar kelp, Kombu) – Laminaria digitata (sea girdles or sea tangle)

• The fastest growing plants in the world, producing large amount of biomass.

• prefer the growth conditions of the cold-temperate and arctic zones, which in Europe stretch from northern Portugal to northern Norway

• small red & green species will not be part of this business plan at the present time

• From brown seaweeds only alginates can be extracted

2. Seaweed- Feedstock of the future

Seaweed - Feedstock of the future

• Industrial hydrocolloids (alginates) • Human consumption • Animal feed (ingredients and supplements) • Chemicals (biorefinery) • Cosmetics • IMTA • Fertilisers • Biofuels

3. Focus on the following current & potential Markets

Current & potential Markets: Human food

• High prices for end consumer seaweed (€30,000/ton dried seaweed)

• Marketing campaign can stimulate consumption

• Low volume market in Europe

• High margin market

• Potential for export of high quality seaweeds to Japan

Current & potential market: Food additives

• Mainly alginates • High volume market • Existing market • High price for seaweed (€1,150-1,750/ton dried

seaweed) • Using wild harvested seaweeds

– Environmental impact – Limited source – Unreliable quality – Price fluctuation

• Growing demand for seaweed

Current & potential Market : Bioremediation

• Fish farmers operating in low margin market but a lot of benefits regarding the fish quality

• Huge volume market potential

• Legislation driven demand but also market driven

• Big push from the NGO’s

• Non-existing market but highly promising

Current & potential Market : Bioremediation

• (Potential) benefits of IMTA

– Maximum use of uneaten fish feed

– Productive use of waste produced by the fishes (faeces)

– Improve the bio diversity(shelter for other organisms

– Higher seaweed yield

– Source for marine fish feed

– Reduction of sea lice

– Reduction of licence cost (« Bio-farm »)

Current & potential market : Feed

• Aquaculture (fish, abalones, urchins)

• Agriculture (fertilizers)

• Protein source for animals (cow, broilers, piglets,…)

• Low price for seaweed (€280/ton dried seaweed) as protein

• Real added value when considering the functional properties and health benefits (added value of 250€ up to 950€/ton dried seaweed

Current & potential market : biorefinery

• High price for seaweed / high added value

• Huge potential for cosmetics, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals

• Medium volume market

• Non-existing but very promising market

Current & potential markets : conclusions

1. IMTA in conjunction with fish farms

2. Food additives (alginates)

3. Human food

4. Feed additives

5. Biorefinery

4. Environmental impact

Environmental impact

• Workshop with NGO’s

– World Wildlife Foundation

– Greenpeace

– Coastwatch Europe

– The Crown Estate

• Seaweeds farms are very well perceived

5. The AT~SEA farm

The AT~SEA farm

• A typical farm – 32 Ha – Yearly production of 4.500 T / year WW (670 T dried) – Investment of : from 3,0 up to 4,0 M€

• depending of infrastructure on shore (dryer, warehouse,…etc

– Cost price of the seaweeds ( 250€/T and 300€/T)

The AT~SEA farm

• Challenges

– Mechanized seeding

– Mechanized harvesting (target 1Ha/day)

– Drying operations

– Storage of the seaweeds

– Modularity of the seeding & harvesting equipment Two harvest / year

7. SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Strength

• Unique business model (One stop shopping + services)

• Better yield/m²

• The structure is designed in function of mechanization

• No competitor

• Good balanced consortium

Weakness

• Currently slightly more expensive than wild harvest

• Designed for brown seaweeds

• One harvest/year

SWOT Analysis

Opportunities (1) • Hydrocolloid industry wants cultivated material • Long European sea coast with high quality water • Get the support of the authorities & NGO’s • Same technology can be used for the red seaweeds • Market opportunities in South America, Africa and Asia • IMTA, bioremediation • IMTA well developed in Asia • Wild harvest has limits Pollution of the Chinese and

Japanese seas • Asian interest in European products

SWOT Analysis

Opportunities (2)

• Growing demand for seaweed ( renewable biomass, bio components, nutrients)

• Surf on the “Blue Growth” (H2020)

• Societal interest in cooking, new ingredients, functional foods, healthy products, nutraceuticals, etc.

• Raising food market in Europe

• Cultivated macroalgae is considered one of the largest un-exploited global biomass resources for a sustainable production of food and replacement of fossil resources

• Neutral carbon footprint

• Climate change

SWOT Analysis

Threads

• Low cost of fossil resources

• Low cost of fossil based chemicals

SWOT Analysis

7. AT~SEA Technologies

AT~SEA Technologies

• The investors – Devan Chemicals (B) – Eurofilet (Fr) – Hortimare (NL) – MTI (NL) – Ocean Fuel (Irl) – Sioen (B) – Technored (Sp) – Centexbel (B) – SAMS (UK)

AT~SEA Technologies

• To propose turnkey seaweeds farms – Selection of the site

– Design and deployment of the mooring system

– Fully equipped farms using patented and award winning 2D textile cultivation substrates

– Equipment (seeding & harvesting)

– Juveniles

– Monitoring, servicing, harvesting, …

• One-stop shopping

Schedule

• Installation of the Park in Norway in Sept 2015

• The Park

– 1ha

– 5,000 m² effective (70T ww)

– 5 different designed including long rope for benchmarking

• 2015-2017: engineering to obtain optimized cultivation system

• Mid 2017: start of commercialisation

8. Questions?