On 4th February 2025, over 350 participants sought insights on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for algae-based products in the webinar “Harmonising Algae-based LCAs – Selecting Systems and Data Providers”. The complete programme of the webbinar is here.
After the opening of the webinar by Mariana Carneiro from Necton and coordinator of the REALM project, Maris Stulgis, Policy officer on Blue Bio-Economy, Algae and Marine Aquaculture from the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, presented how the EU is supporting the developments in the algae sector. After this introduction, the five EU projects working on algae-based value chains presented their approach and current progress on LCA.
What is LCA?
Algae have great potential as a renewable and sustainable alternative to conventional sources for food, feed, agrochemicals, and other products. LCA supports determining whether these algae-based products are truly more environmentally friendly than their conventional counterparts. But how can we best navigate the variety of methods and data sources available for process selection to model production, resource use, and emissions accurately – and make the impacts of different products comparable?
Why Algae-based LCAs?
For algae-based value chains and products, process selection poses unique challenges. These include variability in cultivation and processing techniques, regional differences, emerging technologies, and the difficulty of comparing innovative pilot-scale products to established industrial-scale alternatives.
How can we improve comparability in process and provider selection for LCA?
“The engaging discussion with the speakers highlighted the importance of greater communication and alignment among LCA practitioners in the algae sector to enhance transparency and comparability,” indicates Léa Braud from EABA and stresses that “in this context, making data accessible within the community is key to accelerating the development of sustainable algae-based products.”
Maris Stulgis points out that “the ideal outcome of this collaborative process between EU funded projects with similar tasks would be a well-founded and robust methodology for LCA of algae products environmental footprint across algae value chains.”
Webinar Materials
In case you missed the webinar, you can explore the presentations on process selection from the five real-world examples. LCA experts from various algae-focused research projects presented their approaches to data selection, tailored to the specific requirements and setups of their projects.
- Mariana Carneiro (Coordinator REALM, Necton):
Welcome note - Maris Stulgis (Policy Officer, DG Maritime Affairs & Fisheries):
EU Support to Algae Sector Developments - Lais Speranza (LOCALITY, GreenCoLab):
Comparing LCA of Micro- and Macroalgae Products: Approaches and Challenges at LOCALITY Project - Tom Bradley (REALM, Decerna):
LCA of the REALM Microalgae Production System: Challenges of Methodology, Data, and Baselines - Jonna Snoek (SEAMARK, Wageningen Social and Economic Research):
Conducting LCAs of 3 Macroalgae-based Products and a Comparison with Land-based Alternatives - Märten Lukk (CIRCALGAE, Civitta):
Valorisation of Algae Production Waste Streams - Jean-Baptiste Thomas (AlgaeProBANOS, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm):
Prospective and Attributional LCAs of Emerging ALGAE-PROducts in the BANOS Region
Further you can watch the recording of the webinar in YouTube.
About the Projects
SeaMark is scaling up seaweed cultivation and processing into 12 innovative and price-competitive products, making the entire supply chain attractive for commercial investments.
CIRCALGAE project’s objective is to develop sustainable algae-based biorefineries and products supporting the health of aquatic ecosystems for a healthy planet and people. It aims to valorise the massively produced but at the same time under-exploited algal biomass, mostly industrial side-streams, into high value-added ingredients for the feed, food and cosmetic applications.
AlgaeProBANOS is demonstrating the viability and market accessibility of sustainable algae-based products and solutions in the Baltic and North Seas. In doing so, it will contribute to a thriving algae industry within Europe, supporting a broad range of innovative, sustainable, bio-based products, whilst generating new regional sustainable industries and economic growth.
REALM is combining the treatment of greenhouse wastewater with microalgae production to turn waste into value. Through a biorefinery approach, the produced biomass is processed into bio-stimulants, bio-pesticides for agriculture and functional ingredients for aquaculture thus promoting competitive and sustainable agricultural production and algae-based greener processes and products.
LOCALITY is developing innovative and sustainable algae-based solutions in three regional ecosystems in the North and the Baltic Seas. The project connects the use of waste streams from the fish, agriculture and textile industries for algal cultivation and further utilization of the produced biomass in the respective value chains.