The Portuguese companies Green Aqua and Algikey started a strategic partnership to produce and commercialize algae products for the aquaculture market. This partnership aims to introduce large and reliable production capacity to the markets based on a wide portfolio of high-quality products.
Green Aqua Company is a Portuguese investment group specializing in investing in algae production facilities, with the ambition to be a worldwide reference in this market. The focus of Green Aqua is to invest in sustainable projects with a high degree of circularity in the aquatic and marine biotechnology sector, with particular emphasis on the production and processing of microalgae and seaweed for different applications, from food to biofuels, including the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, animal feed, aquaculture industries, fertilizers, and new materials such as bioplastics.
Green Aqua’s Póvoa production site is located in the ALGATEC Eco Business Park, near Lisbon, close to all major transportation hubs and adjacent to a vibrant European capital to where talent can be easily attracted. The site benefits from high sunlight exposure all year round making it an ideal place for algae production naturally.
True to its sustainability and circular economy model, this production site was designed to reconvert a large underused area of brine ponds to produce microalgae, while preserving the landscape and benefiting from synergies with surrounding industrial infrastructures.
Within the 14-hectare ALGATEC Eco Business Park, which is prepared to receive aquaculture and other industrial projects that share the sustainability and circular economy concepts, the Póvoa’s production site has a 10-hectare area and is the largest microalgae production platform in Europe in capacity and area.
It aims to produce 270 tons of dry-weight of microalgae per year in the form of powder or frozen paste intended for hatcheries and aquafeeds, as well as other market segments. The unit is equipped with a state-of-the-art laboratory for inocula generation and quality control of production, an outdoor photosynthetic production unit for large-scale production of microalgae, and a processing area with a biorefinery for dewatering, drying (spray and freeze-drying), fraction separation and purification.
The industrial open and closed production systems – conceived and installed by the Bioengineering group A4F, Algae for Future – are designed to consistently produce different algae strains with high quality and low contaminant loads, with a projected 330 days of harvest a year. This is the kind of consistency that is sought-after by the aquaculture sector and can allow them to focus on their core business.
ALGATEC Eco Business Park
Species such as Nannochloropsis sp., Dunaliella salina, Arthrospira platensis (spirulina), Phaeodactylum tricornutum are currently under production, while Porphyridium purpureum, Odontella aurita, Isochrysis galbana, among others, can also be produced. Many of these strains are a natural feed for hatchery applications in the production of rotifers, Artemia, copepods, mollusks, crustaceans, finfish, and corals.
In the medium term, the biorefinery at the site will be able to extract valuable fractions such as pigments, carotenoids, omega-3 oils, and other functional supplements from the whole biomass, as well as proteins and carbohydrates for feed enrichment. The aim is to supply the international food and feed markets consistently and at scale.
Algikey is dedicated to the development of applications and commercialization of algae biomass and value-added products. It operates in the international market to promote the production, distribution, and utilization of microalgae and seaweeds at an industrial scale.
As part of A4F Algae for Future – a Portuguese industrial group active in the bioeconomy and chemical sector, with biotechnology and sustainability in its DNA –, Algikey positions itself as a flexible and agile commercialization partner connecting large industrial producers like Green Aqua and industrial applications.
Algikey embodies the 20 years of experience of the group in the algae business, with vast technical knowledge of algae production, products and applications, and translates it to significant commercial and market knowledge. The company aims to support producers with offtake contracts, which guarantee future sales, at an agreed price, derisking their projects, facilitating new investments and identifying growth and expansion opportunities.
This strategic partnership with Algikey allows Green Aqua to access a significant algae market for its products, while Algikey becomes better positioned than ever to provide large volumes of algae products to the aquaculture markets, including customized production and specialized contract manufacturing, with predefined quality and delivery schedules of algae products to aquafarm operations.
This partnership hopes to help hatcheries and the aquaculture industry find a reliable and large-scale partner to source high-quality algae solutions that allows them to focus on their core business.
