The production and consumption of algae is small in Europe. However, in Asia one has been cultivating algae on a large scale for a long time. Algae are rich in many essential nutrients that can be used in the production of food and animal feed. But algae can also be used as a raw material for the production of plastic and other materials. The residuals from this process can be used for production of biogas and bio-fertilizers. Algae may therefore potentially contribute to reduce our impact on the climate and reduce our dependence of fossil raw materials.

Seafarm is an interdisciplinary research project which cultivates and uses algae for many different purposes in a closed loop system that produces zero waste. The goal is to use the full potential of the algae. An important part of the project is to assess the sustainability of the system. Within the project Jonas will study the locals’ attitudes to the cultivation sites, the potential of algae cultivation, and the benefits and costs of the cultivation sites.

Seafarm has financial support from Formas and is a collaboration between five universities: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg, Linnæus University and Lund University.

The project ends 2019.