Algae serves many purposes in both traditional cuisine and modern manufacturing processes. Exploring the uses for various kinds of micro- and macroalgae will help you choose the right variety for your system.
The benefits of algae farming in general include:
- Reuse of land that isn’t suitable for other forms of agriculture due to contamination, salt content, or lack of soil
- Rapid growth rates that produce more biomass per month than other forms of agriculture
- Multiple markets for selling the same algae varieties, protecting the producer from fluctuations in demand
- Systems that fit every situation and existing structure, from indoor, fully enclosed bioreactor systems to open, outdoor ponds that utilize sunlight
- Easy combination of algae producing systems and other forms of food production that require a feed source.
These benefits apply to both open pond and closed bioreactor production. No matter how you plan to produce algae, you can enrich the local community and improve the environment rather than causing damage with extraction technologies. Depending on the specific type of algae that grows well in your particular area, you could end up selling a viable product to one or more of the following industries.
Energy Production
Like other green plants, algae is packed with chlorophyll that helps produce food for the plants from sunlight. Yet when algae photosynthesize, they also release electrons into the water around them that creates a weak electrical charge. If you get enough of the right kind of algae together in an enclosed environment, you can capture that charge to generate electricity. While standard mechanical solar panels are known as photovoltaic systems, this is a bio photovoltaic system because living things are involved in converting the light to energy. Genetically modifying the algae further increases the power they can generate, creating a reliable source of renewable energy. Most experimental systems for algae power generation currently take the form of closed bioreactors, but methods that increase the efficiency of the algae will eventually make it possible to generate power with open ponds.
In addition to direct energy production, algae is also grown to ferment into biofuel that powers generators, vehicles, and other equipment. Algae-based biofuel takes only a fraction of the cropland required for ethanol production from corn, making it a much more profitable and environmentally friendly option.
Animal Feed
Growing grain to feed animals, that we then consume as meat, is an energy-intensive farming method. It leads to extensive top soil loss, soil demineralization, and less growing space that could be dedicated to foods we eat directly. Algae is a great alternative source of feed for livestock that once demanded thousands of acres of corn and other grains to keep them growing. Since various algae species boast different nutritional values and protein amounts, there’s a variety to match to the nutritional needs of any animal. In fact, algae can even form a closed loop system in animal husbandry by feeding upon the manure as a nitrogen source and producing valuable feed in response. Algae is most widely used as a nutritional supplement for cattle rather than a food source, but this is likely to change as demand for arable land continues to grow.
Currently, the most developed use of algae as animal feed occurs in aquaculture. Tiny phytoplankton are the only food source small enough for fish hatchlings and fry to eat, so they’re cultured in nursery and rearing tanks before the fish arrive. Growing algae directly in the ponds and tanks where the fish live, provides a steady food source until the fry are big enough to eat the algae faster than it can regrow.
Human Food Source or Additive
Algae has been eaten by humans for millennia, especially the macroalgae varieties commonly known as seaweed. Yet, despite the importance of seaweed and algae in some diets, it’s been largely gathered from the wild rather than propagated as a crop on farms. Now, that’s changing due to new techniques for culturing seaweed and edible algae in controlled environments. Since microalgae are so small and have a relatively low mass, they need to be grown and harvested in high volumes to even act as an affordable additive to increase the flavor, nutritional value, or protein content of another food. When used as the primary ingredient for a recipe, there’s definitely a high demand for a huge volume of algae. Since both micro- and macroalgae tend to be dried before cooking, they lose any weight contributed by water content. A spoonful of spirulina powder may have taken up multiple cubic feet of water while the tiny plants were alive, therefore large-scale pond cultivation is necessary. This cultivation must be controlled enough to result in a safe product.
Nutritional Supplement
In addition to being mixed into existing foods as a supplement, some microalgae varieties are also packaged and sold as dietary supplements. Capsules containing measured doses of spirulina, botryococcus braunii, or haematococcos pluvialis are growing in popularity because they offer concentrated doses of antioxidants believed to play important anti-aging and anti-carcinogenic roles in the body. However, more research is still needed to determine exactly what happens to the body when a dose of microalgae is taken. The health effects of macroalgae varieties like seaweed are better established, making products like powdered or whole dulse and laver popular as nutritional supplements as well.
Fertilization
Most green plant life can be composted or decomposed in some way to produce a viable fertilizer that adds nitrogen to the soil. This is especially true of algae, which is abundant in nitrogen when handled correctly. As with power generation, there are many opportunities to boost the fertilizer value of various algae species by genetically modifying them. Since algae can also help process wastewater that is high in soluble nutrients due to previous fertilizer use, there’s an opportunity for a closed loop system that returns soil fertility while preventing excess nitrogen from reaching local waterways.
Cosmetics
The same powerful antioxidants listed above for nutritional supplementation also play an important role in the cosmetic industry. Dozens of different compounds are extracted from various algae to preserve delicate mixtures and add specific skin-firming or tone-correcting functions. If you’re looking for an algae market that offers high prices and relatively low volume demands compared to animal feed or human food uses, cosmetics may be the right industry for you to supply. Some algae are used whole directly in a formulation, but most cosmetic products include a small amount of a single compound extracted from the algae instead.
Dyes and Natural Colorants
Most varieties of algae are green, but some types take on a distinctive red or blue hue that can be hard to find from other natural sources. This has led to algae being used for the production of natural food dyes and permanent fabric dyes alike. For a low-tech approach, some cooks mix powdered algae directly into bread and other light-colored foods to get a rich green hue. Algae-based natural colorants are a good choice if you’re looking to market a product to consumers that are concerned about artificial colorings safety and health effects.
Plastic Development
Another commercial and industrial application for algae is the production of truly biodegradable bioplastics. Compounds from many seaweed species create flexible and durable plastics that have specific projected lifespans before rapidly breaking down in the soil. Previous attempts to create bioplastics have resulted in products that either offer high biodegradability but low durability or highly durable plastics that don’t break down well. Algae compounds offer the best of both worlds, making it possible to design bioplastic packaging and parts that are actually applicable to everyday use.
Wastewater Treatment
Finally, the voracious appetite of many algae species and their ability to absorb nitrogen and other nutrients from wastewater makes them an important part of many treatment systems. Other microalgae prefer to absorb heavy metals, removing them safely from the water supply. Algae full of heavy metals or other contaminants can be strained out, dried, and disposed of to keep the metals from circulating through the water cycle. Reducing the nitrogen and phosphorous levels in the water reduces its effect on local waterways when it’s released again. If they’re not contaminated with heavy metals or other problem compounds, the wastewater algae can be reused as fertilizer as well.
Since the specific conditions required for healthy growth vary depending on the algae you choose to grow, you’ll need to settle on an algae before designing a pond to grow it in. Narrow down your choices with this list of uses. It’s generally easier to find an application you’d like to fulfill and then figure out which algae species fit that niche rather than starting with a variety and trying to find existing demand for it.
