The overall goal of the project is to develop a robust scientific and technological basis for substantiating strategic and technical decisions for the industrial development of high-value products from algae. This shall contribute to develop this new and sustainable resource for market. The concept of the proposal is strictly oriented to the value chain of microalgae. Starting at the very end of the value chain the proposal picks up a concrete application of high market relevance. The main targeted application is the use of high purified omega 3 fatty acids (DHA/EPA) as building blocks in modern oleo chemistry to gain high value products for nutrition and pharmaceutical applications. These applications will define specifications that propagate backwards along the various value-adding stages of the value chain. These stages include biology, cultivation technology and downstream technology. So the aim of this project is to realize a concrete exemplary value chain, develop the technical interfaces between the different value adding stages and investigate the still open research aspects on every single stage while addressing the needs of the value chain as a whole. Finally, an integrated processing, combining all technical steps, will be implemented for demonstration. A comprehensive and holistic sustainability approach will complement the scientific and commercial advances on each value-adding stage.

A consortium with 6 companies and 3 research institutes will integrate state of the art science and technologies in order to assemble a complete process from feedstock production and harvesting to oil extraction and purification. Innovative technologies will be combined taking advantage of a complimentary partnership with the best available expertise in the sector in Europe. These processes will be evaluated for their sustainability and scaled-up from lab to demonstrative prototype level.