INNOVATION ▶▶▶
Marine microalgae in biofilm for sustainable animal feed
Inalve produces marine microalgae in biofilm in a bid to offer nutritious, sustainable protein and functional ingredients that support animal health and performance. CEO and co-founder Christophe Vasseur tells us more.
BY REBECCA KWAKMAN
According to In- alve CEO and co-founder Christophe Vas- seur sustainabil- ity is key to his company.
E
stablished in 2016, French biotech company Inalve produces marine microalgae in biofilm to cater to feed manufacturers and aquaculture farmers. Accord- ing to CEO and co-founder Christophe Vasseur, who
holds a PhD in marine biology, sustainability is key to his company. “Our company’s aim is to produce highly functional feed ingredients to feed animals in a more sustainable and natural way,” he says. “Looking at marine microalgae from the perspective of a marine biologist, I knew they were an impor- tant part of the marine food chain: the whole ocean relies on the nutrition they provide, and their health benefits work
through the entire food chain,” he adds. “It’s challenging to cultivate microalgae, but they have huge potential, and we wanted to address this at an industrial level.”
Marine microalgae produced with minimal carbon footprint Marine microalgae are sustainable in more ways than one, Vasseur explains: “50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from marine microalgae; they have a huge impact on a global scale. We produce them with a minimal carbon footprint,” he explains. The oxygen generated by cultivating marine mi- croalgae could further contribute to the product’s sustainabil- ity. However, there are some challenges facing the company, also in this regard: “We have to carefully calculate and define our product’s sustainability.”
Marine microalgae has less CO2 “When comparing our product to available protein sources,
such as soybean meal and fishmeal, we found that our prod- uct has four times less impact in terms of CO2
fishmeal, and we generate nine times less CO2 than is gener-
ated in soymeal production,” Vasseur explains. His company, he elaborates, furthermore taps into the challenges that come with the world’s limited resources: “We, as humans, need to stop harvesting: to produce 1kg of fishmeal, you need to harvest fishes from the sea – this is simply not sus- tainable, and the oceans are already overexploited. Under- standing these challenges lies at the basis of our company, and we aim to tackle it by replacing fishmeal and soymeal with marine microalgae,” he says.
What was the challenge? “Our biggest challenge was proving that microalgae work, and then determining how we could produce marine mi- croalgae at the right volume, the right price, and with a con- stant focus on sustainability. We must also carefully consider how we compare to others: our ingredients should not only be nutritional, but they should also be highly functional, so we need to show that our product is as nutritious as fishmeal in terms of digestibility. Marine microalgae provide an
24 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 29, No. 4, 2021 emissions than
PHOTO: INALVE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
