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Description
The PhytoBlueFrac project rises from the company current capacity to produce microalgae with high nutritional value and economic potential, and the need to diversify and differentiate itself in the national and international markets. The main purpose is to produce food supplements from the lipid fraction with high market value and high nutraceutical capacity. These compounds are known for their great antioxidant capacity, and its production and enhancement can be modelled according to the cultivation conditions (e.g. culture medium). The nutraceutical products developed have an outstanding biological ability that allows to prevent and treat some diseases that affect the world population. Phytoalgae company interest in developing these highly innovative and differentiated products is to increase its microalgae production capacity and consequently produce food supplements rich in carotenoids, fatty acids, and sterols, with the aim to become, in the short term, market leader in this economic field. The food supplements developed in this project come from microalgae cultivated in planar photobioreactors, in which the nutrients made available in the culture will be the target of an optimization process. The direct beneficiaries are the consumers, as they will have at their disposal novel nutraceutical, natural, and biological products, manufactured to provide a superior and differentiated quality level, accompanied by the "Made in Portugal" stamp. The partnership established between the company Phytoalgae (promoter) and the University of Madeira, in this project, allow a reinforcement in the investigation and analytical characterization of these products, as well as the implementation of high productive quality parameters and biological certification. The project financed under the EEA grants program “SGS #1 – Support to initiatives that promote the growth of Startups”, has a duration of 18 months, and runs between March 2021 and August 2022.
Summary of project results
The PhytoBlueFrac project rises from the company current capacity to produce microalgae with high nutritional value and economic potential, and the need to diversify and differentiate itself in the national and international markets. The main purpose is to produce food supplements from the lipid fraction, rich in carotenoids, fatty acids, and sterols, with high market value and high nutraceutical capacity. This products developed have an outstanding biological ability that allows to prevent and treat some diseases that affect the world population. The food supplements developed in this project come from microalgae cultivated in planar photobioreactors, in which the nutrients made available in the culture will be the target of an optimization process. The direct beneficiaries are the consumers, as they will have at their disposal novel nutraceutical, natural, and biological products, manufactured to provide a superior and differentiated quality level.
With regard to the goals achieved, the activity 1 consisted in the microalgal cultures optimization and maintenance. For the achievement of this goal several growth media, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, as well as, light intensity and pH were assessed. Biomass and biochemical composition were determined for the different microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris, Haematococcus pluvialis, and Arthrospira platensis. In the activity 2, the main goals were the implementation and optimization of an extractive CO2 fractionation methodology, as well as the analytical characterization of extracts. The main extracts had three types ofmacromoleculesfatty acids, carotenoids and sterols, which originated the products formulated. In the activity 3 an adequate packaging, labeling and quality control process was implemented for these products. In the activity 4 the wide divulgation of results was performed, namely with the participation in six international conferences, publication of several contents on social network with several aspects related with the project, as well as, the brand registration and label prototyping.
This project clearly contributed to the increase of new innovative processes in this business sector, allowing the company to move from a phase in which the company only sells dehydrated biomass to the sale of products with high added value (food supplements extracts), which allowing an economic growth much higher than 5%. The products manufactured will have a great impact on the health in the consumers, as well as, on increasing the company''s production capacity and hiring qualified workers, with an expected number of 10 full-time employees in the cruise year. All the scientific and industrial knowledge generated in the project was subject to intellectual property and brand protection, strongly contributing to one of the deficit indicators in the Autonomous Region of Madeira.