Tag: Algae

Spirit production provides furniture in Scotland. And as another Scottish startup discovered, whisky by-products can also help reduce overfishing. The team uses distillery waste water to manufacture Omega-3s. Wild fish are known to be a rich source of the fatty acids, but they actually acquire them by eating algae. The team used the waste from whisky distillation (including barley)...

Potato stems can be very becoming. So, too, stylish handbags. Enter a Belgian startup which is working with biotechnology to ensure no animal products are used in their manufacture. Using a bio-printer, microalgae biomass is transformed into a leather alternative. The texture of the material can be adjusted according to different parameters during the printing process, from crinkled to...

Some test animals do get a happy ending after all. Better still, a US research team wants to ensure animal testing can be bypassed in sustainable and cost-effective ways with the help of marine red seaweed, known as Pacific dulse. Following cleaning and drying of the seaweed the US team used an anionic surfactant to remove all its cells,...

Wastewater from soybean production can provide fodder for fish. Meantime, a university research team from the US has been experimenting with wastewater from beer and potato production, as the sodium acetate it contains is a carbon compound offering a low-cost alternative to glucose. Like glucose, it can be a carbon source for the protein-rich microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana. The team...

A robot can clean oceans by dropping harmful seaweed below the surface. Yet in Brasil, a research team has found a new use for sargassum, a rapidly-spread brown algae that stinks out beaches. The team mixed the seaweed with clay, using 20% sargassum in one batch and 40% in the other. These samples were compressed at temperatures of 800-1.000°C...

Sustainable toilet paper made from oranges and aloe vera is helping to seed flowers. Meanwhile sanitary towels and pantyliners can be manufactured using banana fibres. And now, a female-led startup in Berlin is making nappy liners and tampons from seaweed. Dried brown algae is ground into powder and an off-white substance extracted from it. It is free from heavy...

Waste from breweries is a breeding ground for sustainable livestock feed. But the methane produced by these animals during the digestive process has a significant impact on the environment. For a female-led startup in Hawaii, however, the solution lies in a particular species of red algae called Asparagopsis taxiformis (instead of kangaroo babies). According to tests conducted on livestock,...

Seaweed can be used as a fire retardant. In Berlin, meanwhile, a female designer has developed a thin algae-based film and coated it with a natural dye. The aim? To stop still edible food being wasted. Her film changes colour according to the pH value of what it’s covering, reacting upon contact with gases like ammonia, produced when fish...