Inside Iceland’s futuristic farm rising algae for meals

Within the shadow of Iceland’s largest geothermal energy station, a big warehouse homes a hi-tech indoor farm of types that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Beneath a wierd pink-purple glow, illuminated panels buzz and cylindrical columns of water bubble away, as a futuristic crop of microalgae grows.

It is right here that Iceland’s Vaxa Applied sciences has developed a system that harnesses power and different sources from the close by energy plant, to domesticate these tiny aquatic organisms.

“It is a new mind-set about meals manufacturing,” says common supervisor, Kristinn Haflidason as he offers me a tour of the space-age facility.

For a lot of our historical past, people have consumed seaweed, additionally know as macroalgae.

However its tiny relative, microalgae has been a much less frequent meals supply, though it was eaten for hundreds of years in historical Central America and Africa.

Now scientists and entrepreneurs are more and more exploring its potential as a nutrition-rich, sustainable meals.

About 35 minutes from the capital Reykjavik, the Vaxa web site produces the microalgae Nannochloropsis, each as meals for folks, and for feed in fish and shrimp farming.

It additionally grows a sort of micro organism referred to as Arthospira, also referred to as blue-green algae, because it shares related properties with microalgae.

When dried out it is know as spirulina and is used as a dietary dietary supplements, a meals components, and as a bright-blue meals colouring.

These tiny organisms photosynthesise, capturing power from gentle to soak up carbon dioxide and launch oxygen.

“The algae is consuming CO2, or turning the CO2 into biomass,” explains Mr Haflidason. “It is carbon detrimental.”

Vaxa’s plant has a singular state of affairs.

It is the one place the place algae cultivation is built-in with a geothermal energy station, which provides clear electrical energy, delivers chilly water for cultivation, sizzling water for heating, and even pipes throughout its CO2 emissions.

“You find yourself with a barely detrimental carbon footprint,” says Asger Munch Smidt-Jensen, a meals expertise marketing consultant at Danish Know-how Institute (DTI), who co-authored a research assessing the environmental influence of Vaxa’s spirulina manufacturing.

“We additionally discovered a comparatively low footprint, each by way of land and water use.”

Round the clock renewable power, plus a stream of CO2, and vitamins with a low carbon footprint, are wanted to make sure the setup is climate-friendly, and he thinks that isn’t simply replicated.

“There’s a enormous enter of power to run these photo-bioreactors, and it’s important to artificially simulate the solar, so that you want a excessive power gentle supply,” he explains.

“My major takeaway is that we must always utilise these areas [like Iceland] the place we have now low influence power sources to make power intensive merchandise,” provides Mr Munch Smidt-Jensen.

Again on the algae plant, I climb onto an elevated platform, the place I’m surrounded by noisy modular models referred to as photo-bioreactors, the place hundreds upon hundreds of tiny purple and blue LED lights gas the microalgae’s development, rather than daylight.

They’re additionally provided water and vitamins.

“Greater than 90% of the photosynthesis occurs inside very particular wavelengths of purple and blue gentle,” explains Mr Haflidason. “We’re solely giving them the sunshine that they use.”

All of the circumstances are tightly managed and optimised by machine studying, he provides.

About 7% of the crop is harvested each day, and quickly replenished by new development.

Vaxa’s facility can produce as much as 150 metric tonnes of algae yearly, and it plans to develop.

Because the crops are wealthy in protein, carbohydrate, omega-3s, fatty-acids, and vitamin B12, Mr Haflidason believes rising microalgae this fashion, might assist sort out international meals insecurity.

Many different firms are betting on the potential of microalgae – it is estimated the market can be value $25.4bn (£20.5bn) by 2033.

Danish start-up Algiecel has been trialling transportable transport container-sized modules that home photo-bioreactors, and which might hyperlink as much as carbon-emitting industries to seize their CO2, whereas concurrently producing meals and feed.

Crops are additionally being utilized in cosmetics, prescription drugs, biofuel and a substitute for plastic.

Maybe additionally microalgae could possibly be produced in area.

In a mission funded by the European Area Company, the Danish Technological Establishment plans to check if a microalgae may be grown on the Worldwide Area Station.

Regardless of all of the funding, there’s some option to go earlier than micro-algae change into an on a regular basis a part of our weight loss plan.

It nonetheless wants a variety of improvement, in line with Mr Munch Smidt-Jensen.

He factors out that the feel lacks firmness. In the meantime the style may be “fishy” if the algae is a saltwater selection.

“However there are methods of coming overcoming this,” he provides.

There’s additionally the societal query.

“Are folks prepared for it? How will we make it so that everybody needs to eat this?”

Malene Lihme Olsen, a meals scientist at Copenhagen College who researches micro algae, says its dietary worth wants extra analysis.

“Inexperienced microalgae [chlorella] have a really strong cell wall, so it may be troublesome for us to digest and get all of the vitamins,” she says.

For now she says microalgae is healthier added to different “service merchandise” like pasta or bread to assist with style, texture and look.

Nonetheless, Ms Olsen believes microalgae are a promising future meals.

“If you happen to evaluate one hectare of soy in Brazil, and picture we had one hectare of algae area, you can produce 15 instances extra protein a yr [from the algae].”

Again on the plant I am taking a look at an unappetising inexperienced sludge. It is the harvested microalgae with the water squeezed out, prepared for additional processing.

Mr Haflidason provides me a style and, after preliminary reluctance, I attempt some and discover its flavour impartial with a texture like tofu.

“We’re completely not proposing that anybody ought to eat inexperienced sludge,” jokes Mr Haflidason.

As an alternative the processed algae is an ingredient for on a regular basis meals, and in Reykjavik one bakery makes bread with Spirulina and a health club places it in smoothies.

“We’re not going to alter what you eat. We’re simply going to alter the dietary worth of the meals that you simply eat,” he says.