Note: This work was undertaken when Below280 operated as the LCA division of Decerna Group
Background
The InteSusAl project demonstrated that microalgae biodiesel was not viable at current production scales and pointed toward high-value products as the more promising direction. MAGNIFICENT was that next step: a Horizon 2020 project funded by the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking to develop new food, aquafeed and cosmetic ingredients from microalgae using existing large-scale production facilities.
Before MAGNIFICENT, the microalgae industry was producing primarily dietary supplements and cosmetics. Production capacity at industrial scale existed across Europe but the product range was narrow and market opportunities were limited. MAGNIFICENT set out to develop and validate new biorefinery concepts, expanding both the product range and the market volume available to microalgae producers.
The Consortium
MAGNIFICENT brought together 16 partners from 7 EU countries, including 10 SMEs, 2 large companies and research and technology organisations, covering the full value chain from cultivation through to end markets. Below280 was the UK partner responsible for life cycle assessment and social life cycle assessment across the project.
The full consortium was: Wageningen University (Netherlands); Stichting Wageningen Research (Netherlands); Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany); Necton S.A. (Portugal); CMP Cimentos Maceira e Pataias (Portugal); Sparos LDA (Portugal); Erdyn Consultants (France); Alga Development Engineering and Services (Spain); Madebiotech (Portugal); Below280/Decerna (UK); Algosource Technologies (France); Kemin Industries (Belgium); IMEnz Bioengineering (Netherlands); N-zyme Biotec (Germany); Natac Biotech (Spain); and Total Raffinage Chimie (France).
The inclusion of Necton, which had hosted the InteSusAl demonstration facility in Olhão, meant the relationship between Below280 and one of Europe’s leading microalgae producers continued from the previous project.
Below280’s Role: LCA and S-LCA of Microalgae High-Value Products
As part of Decerna, Below280 conducted ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 compliant life cycle assessments and social life cycle assessments of the whole supply chain for microalgae-based product production across the project. Models were built in openLCA using the Ecoinvent database for environmental LCA, the Soca database used for the S-LCA.
The assessment covered 18 ReCiPe Hierarchist midpoint impact categories across the range of products developed within the project. Each product was compared against a baseline model representing current conventional production methods for equivalent products, identifying where the microalgae-based supply chain performs better or worse across the full environmental and social profile.
Impact hotspot analysis identified where the greatest opportunities for reducing environmental impacts lay, informing the project’s development priorities and providing the evidence base for the business cases developed by the consortium.
The S-LCA component assessed social impacts across the supply chain, covering workers, local communities and other stakeholders. Social life cycle assessment alongside environmental LCA reflects the growing requirement from funders and buyers for social as well as environmental due diligence on bio-based value chains.
What MAGNIFICENT Achieved
The project developed and validated new high-value product applications from microalgae across food, aquafeed and cosmetics, expanding substantially on the dietary supplements and cosmetic products that had previously dominated the sector. New value chains were validated from cultivation through to end market, covering both upstream and downstream processes. The LCA and S-LCA work provided the quantitative environmental and social evidence underpinning the business cases for commercial scale-up.
The Thread from InteSusAl to MAGNIFICENT to REALM
MAGNIFICENT sits in the middle of a fifteen-year thread of microalgae LCA work. The InteSusAl project showed that microalgae biodiesel was not viable and that high-value products were the direction worth pursuing. MAGNIFICENT pursued exactly that, developing the food, aquafeed and cosmetic value chains the InteSusAl LCA pointed toward. REALM, the current EU Horizon project in which Below280 is an active partner, continues this work with next-generation production systems.
Why It Matters for Microalgae LCA and Bio-Based Product Assessment
For investors, developers and regulators evaluating bio-based product value chains, LCA and S-LCA provide the quantitative evidence that separates verified environmental claims from unverified ones. The MAGNIFICENT framework, comparing new microalgae-based products against conventional production baselines across 18 impact categories with full hotspot analysis, is the standard of rigour that product claims in this sector require.
Below280 brings this methodology and the accumulated dataset from three successive EU microalgae projects to any engagement involving microalgae LCA, bio-based product assessment or high-value product sustainability verification.
About Below280
Below280 is a specialist LCA, EPD and carbon due diligence consultancy with a long track record in microalgae LCA, bio-based product life cycle assessment and social LCA. We conduct ISO 14040/44-compliant assessments for renewable energy technologies, sustainable materials and low-carbon systems, including independent verification of environmental claims for investors, developers and regulators.
MAGNIFICENT project website: https://magnificent-algae.eu
CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/745754