About the project
The Norwegian Government has drawn up a national strategy on Bioeconomy in which new marine bioproduction, and especially macroalgae, are expected to play a key role. Turnover of the Norwegian seaweed related industries is about 1.2 BNOK and employs approximately 400 people. The report "Value creation based on productive oceans in 2050" forecasts a 6-fold increase in annual turnover in the Norwegian aquaculture industry by 2050, with an increase to 20 million tons and turnover of 40 BNOK in the macroalgae industry.
A report from 2014 summarizes the following topics as having R&D-needs to develop industrial cultivation: (i) early life stages, (ii) chemical composition and biomass production, (iii) environmental requirements and impact, (iv) biofouling and (v) modelling of sea farm systems.
Objectives
The UiO-work package of the project involves:
- Establish methods to measure quality parameters.
- Measure quality parameters for S. latissima and A. esculenta seedlings with different latitudinal origin.
- Adapt a seedlings protocol for industrial cultivation of P. palmata.
- Measure quality parameters for P. palmata.
Outcomes
MACROSEA will deliver fundamental knowledge on macroalgae production biology and technology for sea farm design, enabling industrial production of biomass at different climatic, ecological and physical regimes.
Background
Cooperation
National partners: SINTEF, NTNU, UiB, UiT, APN, NIVA,