CYCLALG and MACRO CASCADE – Two new European projects on algal biorefineries

Efforts continue on both sides of the Atlantic to develop technologies that speed up the deployment of integrated algal biorefineries. Some days ago, the blog posted about the recent announcement of funding support for three projects aimed at increasing the yields and lower the costs of algal biofuels from the USA Energy Department (more information here). And today, it is presenting two new European projects that will deepen in this same line. Below, summary factsheets with the key information about these two projects are shown.

CYCLALG

Name	CYCLALG
Call	70% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the “Programa Interreg V-A España-Francia-Andorra” (POCTEFA 2014-2020).
Partnership	Six technological centres: Asociación de la Industria Navarra (AIN), Centre technologique en environnement et maîtrise des risques (APESA), CRITT Agro Ressources (CATAR-CRITT), Centro Nacional de Energías Renovables (CENER), NEIKER-Tecnalia (líder) y Tecnalia Research & Innovation.
General objective	To develop and validate technological processes focused on producing biodiesel from microalgae.
Duration	3 years
Total budget	1.4 M€
Other key points	Biorefinery model based on the integral utilization of the microalgal biomass (obtention of new products for the chemical, energy and agricultural sectors). The heterotrophic growth of oleaginous microalgae strains is established as an alternative to improve the productivity of the process. Scheme based on the circular economy concept: Development of technologies that allow to valorize the waste streams and the co-products: synthesis of biopolymers and other biomolecules, obtention of biofertilizers and animal feed and production of biomethane. It follows up the results obtained in the project ENERGREEN EFA217/11 that involved most of the partnership members.

MACRO CASCADE

Name	MACRO CASCADE Macro Cascade: Cascading Marine Macroalgal Biorefinery
Call	BBI JU proposal call, BBI VC3.R9 - Valorization of aquatic biomass
Partnership	Cargill, Danish Technological Institute (DTI), Danish Technological University (DTU), Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Matís, Novozymes  and Ocean Rainforest (ORF) in the Faroe Islands.
Gereral objective	To investigate value added streams from mass cultivated seaweed.
Total amount of funding	4.15 M€
Other key points	Value added streams will lead to final products such as nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. The waste products will be directed to the production of fertilizers and biofuels. The project will establish and evaluate macroalgal biorefining systems on a lab, pilot, and conceptual scale for making feasibility studies and achieving 100% utilization of biomass.

Figure 1. Overview of the integrated cascading marine macroalgal biorefinery (extracted from a press release of Matís about MACRO CASCADE)