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Description
The PhytoNUTRE 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 protein fraction with high market value and high nutraceutical capacity. These compounds are known for their great human nutritional capacity and diversity of applications in industry and human health, in the case of enzymes. Its production and enrichment in the biomass production phase can be mould according to the microorganisms cultivated and the nutrients available in the culture medium. In this way, protein-based products can be developed, with a high market value, differentiated from others and with great biological capacity for the health of 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 protein and enzymatic products, 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.
Summary of project results
The need for the PhytoNUTRE project arises from the company''s current capacity to produce microorganisms with high nutritional and economic potential, microalgae and cyanobacteria, and wants to diversify and differentiate itself in the national and international market with the main objective being to produce food supplements with high added value, derived from the protein fraction and which has a high nutraceutical and pharmaceutical capacity.
These compounds are known for their great human nutritional capacity and diversity of applications in industry and human health, in the case of enzymes. Their production and enrichment in the biomass production phase can be modeled according to the microorganism cultivated and the nutrients made available in the cultivation medium. In this way, protein-based products can be developed that have a high market value, are differentiated from other with great biological capacity for the health of the world''s population. The interest of Phytoalgae in developing these highly innovative and differentiated products is aimed at increasing its capacity to produce of microalgae and consequently produce protein-rich food supplements and value-added enzyme products. enzymatic products, becoming in the short term a market leader in a rapidly expanding economic niche.
In general terms, in the first phase the aim is to specifically modulate various abiotic factors during the cultivation phase such as nutrients, light and pH, with the aim of optimizing the production of biomass and, in this way, enrich microalgae and cyanobacteria in their overall protein value and in functional proteins, which have a wide range of applications. Another of the project''s very important objectives is to optimization of the process for obtaining the protein and enzyme extracts, as well as their bioactivity potential.
Also, testing the stability of the products, the form of encapsulation of the protein extracts and the economic viability study of the products to be launched, are relevant objectives in the project, which will give us a broader perspective of the potential of the products manufactured, their degree of innovation, their real market value and the type of consumers they aim to reach.
As for the objectives achieved in the project, the first falls within activity 1, “Optimization of the microalgae and cyanobacteria production process”, and consisted of a first phase of applying different nutritional media, to the four selected species, Chlorella sorokiniana, Chlorella vulgaris, Arthrospira platensis and Chlorella pyreidonosa.
In a second phase, the impact of different concentrations of the nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon source on the growth rate and biomass productivity of the mentioned species was investigated, as well as on the optimization of their lighting and pH conditions. Also, in this activity, the laboratory analysis of cultivated species was another objective achieved, which focused on quantifying the biochemical content, namely total lipids, protein, ash and carbohydrates of the biomass of different species. Regarding activity 3, the main objective was to obtain enzyme extracts, namely the purification of the enzymes, and the evaluation of the bioactivity of the purified enzymes, and this was successfully achieved. In this activity, it is worth mentioning that several extracts containing proteases, peroxidases and galactosidases were obtained, as well as their purification and evaluation of their bioactivity in order to evaluate their applicability in different sectors of the industry.
In turn, in the activity called “Scale up”, activity 4, the objectives achieved were the modeling of the abiotic conditions of industrial production, application of previously optimized conditions in the manufacture of protein and enzyme extract, as well as the evaluation of the quality of the product, namely through the analytical quantification of amino acids, protein, and evaluation of the bioactivity of purified enzymes.
As for activity 5, entitled “Introduction of products into the market”, the tasks: product stability tests, establishment of quality protocols in production, preparation of labels and product certification achieved the proposed objectives, with the encapsulation tests of protein extracts, the product feasibility study and the international market study also met the objectives. Finally, in activity 6, “Disclosure and protection of results”, was successfully completed, with participation in scientific conferences and international fairs, with emphasis on the “Young Algaeneers Symposium” conference that took place in Faro, Portugal, the conference “8th European Phycological Congress” which took place in Brest, France, the conference “AlgaEurope 2023” which took place in Prague, Czech Republic, and the conference “Algae Biomass Summit” which took place in Wisconsin, United States of America. On the other hand, the submission of two registered trademarks and participation in the science dissemination event called “Macaronight 2023 - European Night of the Macaronesian Researcher” has also begun, with the distribution of flyers about the project and the presentation of some of the results obtained and performed activities.
It was detemined the product stability in the short, medium and long term, and implemented quality protocols and biological certification.
It was also determined economic viability of the products.