Whether brown, red or green, algae are resources with huge potential, however they are largely untapped, particularly in Europe.

1. May | June 2014
Algae and animal nutrition
The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry
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3. W
hether brown, red or green,
algae are resources with
huge potential, however
they are largely untapped,
particularly in Europe.
Even if the implementation of viable eco-
nomic sectors still seems distant, more and
more projects are based on the valorisation of
this promising raw material for food and feed
industries: A process for which scientists and
industrialists have everything to gain in moving
forward together.
The earth has seven production basins of
brown seaweed, Asia being widely ahead (75
percent).
Northern Europe comes far behind with
two percent of world production.
“The required conditions for the cultiva-
tion of seaweed are cold water with no
ice”, recalls Marc Danjon, deputy director of
Ceva, the Centre d’Etude et de Valorisation
des Algues, which emphasises that seaweed
culture sector has increased by eight percent
every year for 30 years.
“Do you know many sectors having such
exponential growth ? It’s an impressive mar-
ket,” notes the scientist who regrets that
France still produces less than 100 tonnes
per year.
Here stands the challenge of Breizh’Alg
project, which aims to establish a seaweed
industry and bring the development of sea-
weed culture within a process of regional
development.
For Marc Danjon, it’s time to think of
a ‘range’ like we do for vegetables and to
develop a real industry for ‘sea vegetables’.
All the more since seaweed are full of
qualities offering enormous opportunities
to exploit: they do not need fertilizers, nor
freshwater, nor pesticides and require on
average one-sixth of the surface needed by
terrestrial cultures.
In contrast with the terrestrial plants that
draw nutrients from their roots, algae absorb
nutrients on their entire surface, thus greatly
increasing their productivity.
Moreover, their colloidal structure, which
allows greater water retention, provides to
algae twice more dry matter than terrestrial
plants. A well-known quality for Canadians
and Norwegians, who are developing a sig-
nificant production of Ascophyllum meal,
widely used in agriculture and animal nutrition,
including cattle.
Brown seaweed of the Fucales family,
Ascophyllum is particularly interesting for its
vitamins, minerals and proteins supply, but
also for its powerful binding properties. Setalg,
based in Brittany, commonly uses it for animal
feed, mainly for petfood (read RAA 649, p36).
Nutritional value
Our interest in seaweed is not new: it
dates back to the Neolithic, where they were
used as fertilizer, feed, fuel, etc.
As for research on algae, it really started
in the second half of the 19th Century, with
the creation of marine stations of Concarneau
(1859) and Naples (1872), followed by the
start in 1872 of the laboratory of experimen-
tal zoology now known as biological Station
of Roscoff.
Raw material with several interests, mac-
roalgae are too often reserved for specialty
markets, therefore with sometimes a prohibi-
tive cost.
The nutritional value of algae stands yet in
the joint presence of minerals (particularly rich
mineral fraction), fiber, protein, vitamins and lipids,
depending on the species (see descriptive table).
In the feed industry, seaweed meals are
increasingly used as a dietary supplement, but
seaweed extract still remain quite inaccessible
economically.
Valorisation
This is exactly Ceva’s role (Center of
study and valorization of seaweed), based in
Pleubian, Côtes d'Armor, to clear the knowl-
edge before considering possible applications,
so that the operation is economically viable.
Idealg project, born in late 2010 (coordi-
nated by the European University of Brittany
and Roscoff Biological Station), aims to devel-
op a sector of algae for industrials.
It is part of “The Great Loan Project”,
"which amounts to consider for the first time
algae in the same way as wheat or corn!" Said
Jean-François Sassi, product division manager
of Ceva.
The idea is to increase volumes by inten-
sive selection work; this project complements
Breizh'Alg intention, which is to develop an
economic sector of seaweed in Brittany.
"This is the second floor of the rocket,”
Marc Danjon likes to imagine. “Both projects
are advancing in parallel: Idealy must feed itself
from the results and difficulties of Breizh'Alg.”
Today’s priority is to find areas of culture,
which actually happens in the recovery of con-
cessions, especially from the shellfish industry
in trouble.
ALGAE
and animal
nutrition
24 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | May-June 2014
FEATURE

4. The next step after seaweed farming will
be offshore marine aquaculture, with shellfish
and seaweed culture on the same site as fish
farming (open ocean aquaculture).
Algae have a detoxifying effect that is
particularly interesting in a closed system: the
co-culture shrimp / green seaweed, com-
monly practiced in Mexico and Asia, thus
improves the sanitary status of the farm,
reduces feed costs and has a positive effect
on pigmentation of crustaceans raised under
these conditions.
Applications of seaweed are - theoreti-
cally numerous: cosmetics, human and animal
nutrition, chemistry.
Until now, the latter sector has known the
heaviest investments from large groups.
"Today, three large groups share
the global market of transformation of
seaweed in bio-products, says Jean-
François Sassi: FMC Biopolymer, Cargill
and Dupont, all three directed towards
the production of alginate or carrageenan,
in other words, gelling agents for food and
industrial use.
“At the other end of the chain, there are
also some small seaweed farmers that we
count on the fingers of one hand in Brittany.
In between, it is missing SMEs working on the
very diverse transformation of algal material,”
he adds
Some manufacturers, like Olmix, under-
stood the market opportunity that could
represent the algal resource exploitation.
A project like Ulvans aims to implement a
complete green algae industrial sector.
The scientific literature begins to abound
to demonstrate the positive effects of sea-
weed in health and
nutrition of humans
and animals.
Henri Salmon,
researcher at
INRA, presented
at Olmix 1st Algae
Symposium in
September 2012,
the result of his
research on immune
action and anti-
inflammatory effects
of marine sulfated
polysaccharides
(MSP).
"Depending on
the considered type
of polysaccharide,
there is a general
action on innate
immunity, with dif-
ferent mechanisms
of cell recognition
and many types of
pathways - activa-
tion of the comple-
ment, of the lym-
phocytes, produc-
tion of cytokines.”
The scientist also
notes that more and
more publications
have reported very
successful results
in many areas of
human and animal
health,
"Whether in
the field of antiviral
activities (Influenza,
H5N1), in the regu-
lation of inflamma-
tion and anticoagu-
lant properties or
anti-tumoral activi-
ties, to mention only
the most important
ones. Most of these
activities have been
observed or meas-
ured in cell cultures
or experimental
animals (rat); all
these properties are
potentially applica-
ble to livestock spe-
cies."
A lot of
perspectives
For now France
is still far from using
these resources on
an industrial scale.
May-June 2014 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | 25
FEATURE
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Shortened production cycle
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5. Seaweed are underutilised, regrets Marc
Danjon from Ceva.
Probably also for cultural reasons algae
come marginally in the human diet, compared
to the use that is made in Asia.
Regarding the specific case of green sea-
weed, Marc Danjon asserts that their potential
uses in food are underutilised worldwide.
Their protein content can achieve a significant
rate of 30 percent of dry matter and are also
rich in fiber.
Nevertheless, Ceva’s researchers warn the
industrials: "Wild resources do not present a
very important energy supply and their culture
requires very specific conditions.
Green seaweed are rich in indi-
gestible fiber so they are good
for health but not directly for
animal growth. In culture, it is
therefore necessary to enrich the
Ulva in protein and in digestible
fiber.”
Further research is needed to
reduce the obstacle represented
by the fibers for protein digest-
ibility, in order to transform sea-
weed matter in real raw material
for all species.
“We can get a complete food
quite easily as long as we control
the conditions of biomass pro-
duction,” says Jean-François Sassi.
Brown, red or green, sea-
weed have the potential to feed
but these products are not cali-
brated.
Significant variations of chemi-
cal composition of seaweed
actually make their operation
difficult, hence the necessity for
further research on this issue.
Regarding microalgae, operat-
ing conditions are even more del-
icate and complex, which makes
their cost prohibitive (around
Euro3600 per kilo). Their fat
content is particularly interesting
for the biodiesel industry and
many projects are being set up
to develop its use in animal and
human nutrition.
“We are still a long way
from producing protein meal”,
reports Marc Danjon, who is
calling for a real technological
revolution to develop the use
of microalgae.
“The fields of research
are numerous and very
promising but algae suffer
from being excluded from
plant crops," observe Ceva‘s
researchers.
Europe has no agronomic
approach towards algae like Asia
does, "where they grow algae the same way
as vegetables," he adds.
About Olmix & the
Ulvans project
Olmix, a specialist in ‘green chemistry’,
quickly saw the potential of algae in aquacul-
ture and agriculture. Green seaweed poly-
saccharides, ulvans, combined with micron-
ised clay from Montmorillon gave birth to
Amadéite® in 2004 and this patented product
is now introduced in various feed supple-
ments for animals.
Today with the support of Oséo (up to
Euro10 million for a project which amounts
to Euro25 million euros of investment),
Olmix wishes to structure the valorisation
of seaweed at an industrial scale and to
develop the use of algae as proteins substi-
tute to fishmeal, fertilizer and biostimulant
for plants.
In all, four plants are mobilised around the
pilot project: two sites for the collection and
initial processing, in Plouenan and Nantes, and
two high-tech stations for the development of
finished products:
"Our technique is to hydrolyze the algae
to isolate active principles and to extract the
proteins.
“The valorisation in animal nutrition is
driven towards nutraceuticals and aquaculture,
where seaweed offer a real alternative to fish-
meal. Our pilot plant in Plouenan will reach a
processing capacity of 15,000 tonnes of algae.
In Indonesia a project to develop algae for
bioethanol and food (human and animal) is
being developed with volumes of two million
tonnes. It is clear that the raw material is over
there,” says the company.
About Ceva
Ceva, based in Pleubian on the Northern
coast of Brittany, is the only technical center
in Europe dedicated to the study and valoriza-
tion of marine plants.
Originally created in 1982 to study the phe-
nomenon of green seaweed, Ceva expanded its
applied research on algae (macro and micro),
marine plants and marine biotechnology.
The center is equipped with a labora-
tory of analysis, focusing on the research of
seaweed active principles. It combines the
resources needed for R&D projects on the
development of new process (extraction,
purification) and the physio-chemical charac-
terisation of products stemming from these
projects or specific customers’ requests.
It is strongly focused on the chemistry of
algal polysaccharides, but also of proteins,
polyphenols, pigments and minerals.
Ceva also ensures the transfer of scientific
knowledge from academia to the industrial
field: it is well equipped with a pilot plat-
form providing the full transformation process
to develop various semi-industrial products
according to the requests. With a staff of 25
members, Ceva is organised in three main
departments that are environment, culture
and products.
Created with the support of Breton
communities and industrials of algae sec-
tor, Ceva is a private research organisation
open to any type of industrialists. It is part
of Actia network, which is certified as Agro-
industrial Technical Institute (Itai) by the
First Ministry.
Reference: La Revue de l'Alimentation Animale
N° 664, mars 2013 by Sarah Le Blé and Caroline
Morice.
Composition of seaweed used in animal feed
Protein Brown seaweed: 5-11 % DM
Red seaweed: 30-40 % DM (quantitatively
equivalent to soybean)
Green seaweed: 20% DM
Microalgae : Between 12 and 65 % DM
Fat Macroalgae : low lipid content value of 1 to 3%
DM (up to 5% in Ascophyllum nodosum)
Green seaweed: high content in oleic (C 18:1)
and alpha-linolenic (w3-C 18:3) fatty acids.
Red seaweed: high content of polyunsaturated
fatty acids, EPA (w3-C20-5) and arachidonic acid
(w6-C20: 4). Presence of linoleic and linolenic
fatty acids.
Brown seaweed: comparable to other families,
with a high concentration of linolenic fatty acids.
Microalgae: Can accumulate over 50% of
their dry weight in fat. These consist mainly of
triglycerides, phospholipids and glycolipids. They
contain saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids
such as omega 3 : ALA,EPA,DHA, or omega 6
:ARA.
Fibers
(macroalgae)
Average total content: 32 to 50% DM
Insoluble fiber is found in small amounts in the
form of cellulosic fractions and floridean starch.
Soluble fiber (or phycocolloids), more interesting,
are better represented:
Red seaweed: 51-56% in the form of agars,
carrageenans and xylans
Green seaweed: 51-56% in the form of ulvans,
rhamnanes and arabinogalactan
Brown seaweed: 67 to 87% in the form of
laminaranes (B-glucans), alginates and fucans
Mineral
component
(macroalgae)
The mineral fraction can represent up to 36% DM.
Macro-nutrients: sodium, calcium, magnesium,
potassium, chlorine, sulfur, phosphorus...
Trace elements: iron, zinc, copper, selenium,
molybdenum, fluorine, manganese, boron, nickel,
cobalt…
Case of iodine: exceptionally rich in iodine,
especially for brown seaweed (kelp) and red
seaweed (Gracilaria) and can reach 10 000mg/
kg.
Vitamins Red seaweed: provitamin A
Green seaweed: vitamin C
Brown seaweed: vitamins E,C
The B vitamins are well represented (B2 and B3 in
particular), with originality for B12 normally not
found in plants.
Microalgae: vitamins B1, B6, B12, C,E, K1
Antioxydants Macro and microalgae: Caratenoids between 0.1
and 0.2 % (Fucoxanthin, B-carotene, violaxanthin,
zexanthine and lutein)
Macroalgae: polyphenols (phlorotannins) can
represent from 5 to 20% dry weight of brown
seaweed.
26 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | May-June 2014
FEATURE

6. May-June 2014 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | 27
FEATURE
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