44159Oceanium: biorefining kelp to produce novel alternative protein and fibre sourcesClosedStudyInnovate UKBiorefineries are integrated facilities that convert renewable biomass raw materials (e.g., wood, crops, manure) into fuel, power, and chemicals. Biorefineries have the potential to play an important role in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, and delivering sustainable, carbon-neutral biobased products and energy to meet the needs of our rising global population. Seaweed has recently received significant attention as a potential biomass raw material that does not require land during production; thus, avoiding the "fuel versus food" debate in Europe associated with land-based biomass raw materials such as oilseed rape. In addition, seaweed production does not require freshwater, fertiliser, or insecticides. However, numerous studies to date (Bruhn et al., 2011; Adams et al., 2017) have demonstrated that the increased costs associated with cultivating, harvesting, transporting, and processing seaweed make seaweed uneconomic as a sole source of biofuel (value of less than £1/kg; Cefas, 2016). A biorefinery approach addresses this economic challenge by co-extracting biochemicals from seaweed. These biochemicals create a "pyramid of value" for seaweed (Cefas, 2016), encompassing added-value commodities (value of £1-£5/kg), speciality products (value of £5-£1,000/kg seaweed), bioactives (value of more than £2,000/kg), and special applications (more than £5,000/kg). Based in the European Marine Science Park in Oban, Oceanium is a biotech start-up developing an innovative seaweed biorefinery process for the sustainable production of food ingredients, nutraceuticals, and biopackaging from UK farmed kelp. Kelps are large brown seaweeds, which grow in dense growths or forests, providing habitats for numerous invertebrates, fish, marine mammals, and birds. With funding from Innovate UK/Sky Ocean Ventures, we are currently developing the biorefinery process steps for producing marine-safe biopackaging from farmed kelp, as a replacement for plastics. We rely on sustainably farmed kelp to avoid the environmental damage potentially associated with large-scale wild harvesting of kelp. In this proposed project, we will develop the biorefinery process steps for co-extraction of protein and fibre from kelp, delivering novel alternative protein and fibre sources. We will sell these new products to key speciality chemicals/food ingredient suppliers, who are urgently looking for new, sustainable, clean-label, allergy-free, and vegan sources of protein and fibre to meet growing consumer demand. By developing the processing infrastructure for extracting value from seaweed, we will enable and support the sustainable seaweed farming industry in the UK/EU to scale.