SeaChem

The SeaChem project aims to provide 10 young and promising PhD students with high-quality training in offshore cultivation and valorisation of seaweed. The aim is to enable them to develop the scientific skills needed to build a career in the rapidly growing field of seaweed biomass production and use.

Fossil fuels are used in various sectors to produce chemicals. The resulting negative impact on the environment increases the demand for cost-effective, renewable and sustainable production of high-quality biochemicals.

Within this framework, renewable and sustainable alternatives from biomass are increasingly being looked at. SeaChem investigates how innovative options in offshore seaweed production can respond to this.

• Develop sustainable offshore aquaculture technologies that can be integrated into existing offshore infrastructure (such as wind farms and decommissioned oil rigs) where the sustainability of stainless steel structures in the marine environment is assessed and monitored;
• Develop future-proof advanced technologies for seaweed cultivation by defining current and future optimal conditions for offshore seaweed aquaculture (including through geo-mapping of ideal locations for seaweed production); and
• Develop advanced sustainable extraction techniques that use more intensive chemical and enzymatic processes that allow a wide spectrum of high-quality chemical compounds to be extracted.