Scientific article

Advances within CIRCALGAE project are also patent in the scientific production. Although more is yet to come in 2024, CSIC already released three scientific articles in 2023 related to the exploitation of alginate within a biorefinery. Alginate production has traditionally focused on the extraction of a high quality colloid, this industrial activity involving the processing of hundreds of thousands of tons of brown algae/year in Europe. A more sustainable processing, valorising other valuable fractions in brown algae, involves a deep understanding on how different extraction strategies might affect the yields of potential valuable compounds, such as soluble and insoluble fibre, fucoidan or protein.

However, it is also essential that these valorisation strategies do not alter the yields and quality of alginate.  A review was published in “Trends of Food Science and Technology” (highest impact in the category of food science and Technology; impact factor 12.6; link to the article here) which summarized different approaches to extract alginate and how these might affect the viability of other products valorisation. Moreover, a method for estimating the carbohydrate profile, including the purity and M/G ratio of alginate, laminarin or fucoidan contents, was proposed in “Carbohydrate Polymers” (impact factor 11.2; link to the article here).

More upcoming publications from CSIC within CIRCALGAE include the valorisation of protein from different microalgae spent biomass, among other topics (contact: Toni Martinez-Abad, CSIC, scientific coordination).