Aim:
The aim of Task 3 is to optimise and scale up sustainable dry and wet processing technologies for cultivated seaweeds to generate high-value food, feed, and bioactive ingredients. The task focuses on developing efficient value chains through advanced drying, fractionation, extrusion, and extraction processes while preserving nutritional, techno-functional, and biological properties. It also evaluates the environmental and circularity performance of these processes to support scalable, low-impact industrial applications.
Activities & Outputs:
Optimisation of microwave-assisted drying for energy-efficient biomass stabilisation.
Dry fractionation via air classification to obtain protein-rich and fibre-rich seaweed fractions.
Pilot-scale extrusion of selected fractions to develop food, snack, bakery, and feed products.
Wet fractionation using hydrodynamic cavitation to extract alginates, proteins, fibres, and other bio-actives.
Cascading extraction of amino acids, laminarin, fucoidan, mannitol, and other functional compounds.
Characterisation of nutritional, techno-functional, structural, and bioactive properties.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Circularity Assessment Tool (CAT) analysis of optimised processes.
OTHER TASKS
