ProFlow – Advanced downstream bioprocessing for sustainable microalgal product manufacture

Innovative techniques for manufacture of materials, chemicals, food & fuel are needed in the face of a growing global population, climate change & depletion of fossil fuel resources. Biomanufacturing exploits biological systems to manufacture these products & is currently responsible for thousands of products across a range of sectors, including; food, animal feed, fuel, pharmaceuticals & cosmetics. However, for many bioprocesses scale-up & downstream processing costs are too large for commercial exploitation. This project aims to solve this by using innovative low cost, low energy acoustic techniques to replace energy intensive & expensive cell separation/extraction processes. This will result in a step change in many biomanufacturing processes, reducing energy requirements & processing costs. This enabling technology will have significant economic benefits to the UK biomanufacturing sector, making the commercial exploitation of biotechnology advances possible. The initial project focus in the manufacture of omega-3 oils from micro-algal biomass. There is a strong & growing market for omega-3 oils, which have been shown to have many health benefits such as reducing heart disease & symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Current omega-3s production is mainly from fish oils, which impact the environment & deplete fish stocks. Microalgae omega-3 is a vegetarian, environmentally friendly option with significant societal & environmental benefits. After the initial focus on micro-algal products, this acoustic separation/extraction platform will then be employed across different biomanufacturing sectors.