Europe’s food system is facing some big challenges. Climate change, global tensions, and fragile supply chains are making it harder to produce food in ways that are both reliable and sustainable. To respond, the EU is investing in new solutions that are local, resilient, and better for the planet. One of them? Sustainable microalgae production.
Microalgae are tiny organisms with huge potential. They can be used to make ingredients for food and drinks, animal feed, and even everyday bio-based products. And they use less land than traditional crops, reducing pressure on land.
Why Isn’t Microalgae Everywhere Already?
If microalgae are so promising, why aren’t they widely used yet?
Microalgae are not yet widely used due to their cost and efficiency. Today, most microalgae production in Europe depends on freshwater, added nutrients, and often delivers only one main product from the harvested biomass. This makes production expensive and limits how competitive algae-based products can be.
To truly scale up sustainable microalgae production in Europe, the sector needs smarter ways to use resources and get more value out of every batch of algae.
Single-production and extraction (top) vs multi-product biorefinery (bottom)
ALLIANCE’s Mission: Producing More with Less
We launched ALLIANCE in September 2025, bringing together academic and industry experts who share a common goal: making microalgae production more efficient, more circular, and more affordable.
Instead of using algae to make just one product, we focus on multi-product biorefineries. This means turning a single type of algae into several useful products at the same time.
We work with four different microalgae species, including Spirulina and Chlorella. From these, we develop ingredients for foods, beverages, aquafeed, growth media for lab-cultured meat and bio-pesticides.
Closing the Loop with Circular Production
We also rethink how algae are grown, following the “4Rs” of circular production: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover. In practice, this means:
- Reducing the need for new nutrients through smarter, automated production
- Reusing water from earlier algae cycles or from industries like breweries, food processing, and aquaculture
- Recycling and recovering nutrients from industrial wastewater and feeding them back into algae cultivation
This approach saves water, cuts costs, and lowers the environmental footprint of production.
Why This Matters
By improving every step of the process, from cultivation to final products, we are helping make sustainable microalgae production in Europe more practical and affordable. That’s good news for consumers, businesses, and the environment alike.
With lower resource use, less waste, and more accessible products, microalgae could soon move from niche innovation to an everyday part of a greener European economy.
The products and ingredients we develop will demonstrate how microalgae can support the transition to circular and bio-based industries and can encourage companies to adopt microalgae in their own products and processes.