Marine Biotechnology
The marine environment represents a highly diverse source of bioactive compounds including carbohydrates, peptides, proteins, lipids and antioxidants. These marine-derived functional ingredients have a range of applications in food & drink, feed, cosmetics, health and general life sciences. Marine biotechnology (‘blue biotechnology’) utilizes the marine biodiversity and offers novel marine-based compounds for industries.
Marine Biotechnology has been identified as an emerging area with high potential. European policy on the bioeconomy also identifies marine bioresources as a source of novel products and processes that can be unlocked by marine biotechnology. High value products from bioresources can often be a small volume of the original biomass. A biorefinery approach to marine biotechnology can be the most efficient in order to extract as much value as possible from the biomass. Examples of applications include:
- Food ingredients
- Techno-functional extracts
- Pharmaceuticals
- Cosmetics
- Industrial chemicals
- Horticulture
- Animal feed
Shannon ABC have delivered projects in the marine sector with industry partners as well as through national and EU funding. We have worked with a range of marine biomass including fish waste, oyster powder, seaweed and microalgae. Seaweed and microalgae are two area of particular expertise for Shannon ABC and we have worked with a wide range of Irish companies to support them in their research, development and innovation strategy. Shannon ABC facilities are well equipped to deliver these types of projects and include:
- Analytical instrumentation
- Extraction capabilities (including super critical fluid extraction)
- Cell culture facilities
- Microalgal food grade suite
- Pilot scale rotary evaporation
- Pilot scale fermentation suite
- Pilot scale centrifugation