The Cornish Seaweed Company will optimise a newly-developed system for enhancing growth rates of several commercial seaweed species and enabling the scaling-up of seaweed production.
£166,873.37
18 months
The Cornish Seaweed Company developed AlgaFlow, a novel, land-based seaweed cultivation technique that can produce high value edible seaweeds at high density, with high growth rates and reduced energy costs, free from crustaceans and molluscs. During an 8-month trial, the prototype system consistently achieved growth rates up to 14% for Ulva intestinalis, producing 12 Kg seaweed from one m2 of growth surface (using 150 L of seawater) at harvest intervals of 3 weeks. The growth rates in AlgaFlow are comparable to tank-based systems, but on the order of 15-20 times more efficient in terms of space-use and water efficiency.
AlgaFlow represents a scalable, multi-use seaweed cultivation method. The high rates of nitrate and phosphate consumption of seaweed in the AlgaFlow system also means it has the potential to cost-effectively remediate nutrients in land-based fish farms and remove nitrates, phosphates and other pollutants from water treatment and desalination plants. Tested using Ulva seaweed, the team has made progress with Porphyra (nori) and continues to work on Palmaria (dulse) cultivation.
The Cornish Seaweed Company Ltd