Sustainable production of PHAs through valorisation of seaweed processing waste

海藻作为可持续的生物基原料提供了巨大的潜力，用于生产有价值的化学品和材料，作为化石燃料衍生等同物的替代品，例如生物塑料，个人护理产品和纺织品。然而，为了最大限度地发挥其潜力，并从每一次海藻收获中提取最大价值，至关重要的是，所有生物质部分都被用于提高加工的可持续性和经济性，符合循环生物精炼方法。FlexSea开发了一种新型的柔性薄膜产品，使用从海藻中提取的水胶体，仅使用20-40%的干海藻，其余部分被丢弃。在本项目中，我们将探索使用水胶体提取剩余的废物流作为微生物生产PHA的原料的可行性（生物基塑料替代品）。通过生产两种一次性塑料替代品，（水胶体膜; PHA）在生物精炼方法中，我们的目标是提高整体可持续性海藻作为可持续的生物基原料，具有良好的经济效益（无浪费）和经济效益（降低原材料成本;增加收入来源）。

Seaweeds offer enormous potential as a sustainable bio-based feedstock for the production of valuable chemicals and materials as an alternative to fossil fuel derived equivalents e.g. bioplastics, personal care products, and textiles. However, to maximise their potential and extract maximum value from each seaweed harvest, it is vital that all fractions of the biomass are used to improve processing sustainability and economics in line with a circular biorefinery approach.FlexSea have developed a novel flexible film product using hydrocolloids extracted from seaweeds which only uses 20-40% of the dry seaweed, with the remainder discarded. In this project, we will explore the feasibility of using the waste streams leftover from hydrocolloid extraction as a feedstock for microbial production of PHAs (bio-based plastic alternatives).By producing two single use plastic- alternatives (hydrocolloid films; PHAs) in a biorefinery approach, we aim to improve the overall sustainability (no waste) and economics (reduced raw material costs; additional revenue stream) of using seaweed as a sustainable bio-based feedstock.