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Indoor cultivation of green and red seaweeds at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory
Indoor cultivation of green and red seaweeds at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory.
Photo: Karin Björk
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Sweaweed – Seaweed production systems with high-value applications

Research project
Inactive research
Project period
2015 - 2020
Project owner
Department of Marine Sciences

Short description

Marine seaweed is an unexplored resource in Swedish coastal waters. Besides as food ingredients, seaweed biomass is a potential source for fine chemicals, bio-based materials and other attractive applications. In this project we develop new methods for cultivating green and red seaweeds in Sweden, and sustainable techniques for extracting seaweed-based high value compounds.

Learn about the research on seaweed cultivation and the extraction of proteins.

Video (13:40)
Seaweed – a future food source

People

Principal Investigators

Eva Albers, Industrial Biotechnology, Chalmers University of  Technology

Ulrica Edlund, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, KTH

Henrik Pavia, Department of Marine Sciences – Tjärnö, University of Gothenburg

Gunilla Toth, Department of Marine Science – Tjärnö, University of Gothenburg

Ingrid Undeland, Food and Nutrition Science, Chalmers University of  Technology

Photo: Sophie Steinhagen

Henrik Pavia, Professor, Project coordinator
henrik.pavia@marine.gu.se
Personal web page

Gunilla Toth, Senior lecturer, Coordinator WP 1
gunilla.toth@marine.gu.se
Personal web page

Göran Nylund, Researcher
goran.nylund@marine.gu.se 
Personal web page

Sophie Steinhagen, Post doctor
sophie.steinhagen@gu.se
Personal web page

Gunnar Cervin, Principal research engineer
gunnar.cervin@marine.gu.se
Personal web page

Friederike Eimer, PhD student
Until October 2017

Susanne Liljenström, Project administrator & communicator
susanne.liljenstrom@marine.gu.se
Personal web page

Annelous Oerbekke, Research assistant
annelous.oerbekke@gu.se 
Personal website

Joel White, Research assistant
joel.white@gu.se
Personal website

Ingrid Undeland, Professor
undeland@chalmers.se
Personal web page

Alastair Ross, Assistant professor
Until 2018

Hanna Harrysson, PhD student
Until October 2019

João Pedro Trigo, PhD student
trigo@chalmers.se
Personal web page

Maria Hayes, Guest researcher
Until 2016

Eva Albers, Researcher
eva.albers@chalmers.se
Personal web page

Eric Malmhäll Bah, project assistant
Until December 2016

Suzana Cvijetinovic, Project assistant.
Until February 2020

Venkat Rao Konasani, Postdoctor
Until August 2018

Joakim Olsson, PhD student
Until July 2020

Ulrica Edlund, Professor
edlund@kth.se
Personal web page

Niklas Wahlström, PhD student
niwahl@kth.se
Personal web page

Photo: Anna-Lena Lundqvist

Publications

Sustainable Large-Scale Aquaculture of the Northern Hemisphere Sea Lettuce, Ulva fenestrata, in an Off-Shore Seafarm, by  Sophie Steinhagen, Swantje Enge, Karin Larsson, Joakim Olsson, Göran M. Nylund, Eva Albers, Henrik Pavia, Ingrid Undeland and Gunilla B. Toth. Published in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, June 2021.

In vitro digestibility and Caco-2 cell bioavailability of sea lettuce (Ulva fenestrata) proteins extracted using pH-shift processing, by João P. Trigo, Niklas Engström, Sophie Steinhagen, Louise Juul, Hanna Harrysson, Gunilla B. Toth, Henrik Pavia, Nathalie Scheers & Ingrid Undeland. Published in Food Chemistry, March 2021.

Effects of geographical location on potentially valuable components in Ulva intestinalis sampled along the Swedish coast, by Joakim Olsson, Sofia Raikova, Joshua J. Mayers, Sophie Steinhagen, Christopher J. Chuck, Göran M. Nylund & Eva Albers. Published in Applied Phycology, November 2020.

Ulvan dialdehyde-gelatin hydrogels for removal of heavy metals and methylene blue from aqueous solution, by Niklas Wahlström, Sophie Steinhagen, Gunilla Toth, Henrik Pavia and Ulrica Edlund. Published in Carbohydrate Polymers, August 2020.

Effects of irradiance, temperature, nutrients, and pCOon the growth and biochemical composition of cultivated Ulva fenestrataby Gunilla B. Toth, Hanna Harrysson, Niklas Wahlström, Joakim Olsson, Annelous Oerbekke, Sophie Steinhagen, Alexandra Kinnby, Joel White, Eva Albers, UlricaEdlund, Ingrid Undeland and Henrik Pavia. Published in Journal of Applied Phycology, May 2020.

Cultivation conditions affect the monosaccharide composition in Ulva fenestrata, by Joakim Olsson, Gunilla B. Toth, Annelous Oerbekke, Suzana Cvijetinovic, Niklas Wahlström, Hanna Harrysson, Sophie Steinhagen, Alexandra Kinnby, Joel White, Ulrica Edlund, Ingrid Undeland, Henrik Pavia and Eva Albers. In Journal of Applied Phycology, May 2020. 

Cellulose from the green macroalgae Ulva lactuca: isolation, characterization, optotracing, and production of cellulose nanofibrils, by Niklas Wahlström, Ulrica Edlund, Henrik Pavia, Gunilla Toth, Aleksander Jaworski, Andrew J. Pell, Ferdinand X. Choong, Hamid Shirani, K. Peter R. Nilsson & Agneta Richter-Dahlfors. In Cellulose, February 2020.

Composition and structure of cell wall ulvans recovered from Ulva spp. along the Swedish west coastby Niklas Wahlström, Filip Nylander, Eric Malmhäll-Bah, Karin Sjövold, Ulrica Edlund, Gunnar Westman and Eva Albers. In Carbohydrate Polymers, 2020.

Strategies for Improving the Protein Yield in pH-Shift Processing of Ulva lactuca Linnaeus: Effects of Ulvan Lyases, pH-Exposure Time, and Temperature, by Hanna Harrysson, Venkat Rao Konasani, Gunilla B. Toth, Henrik Pavia, Eva Albers and Ingrid Undeland. In ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, July 2019.

Ulvan lyase from Formosa agariphila and its applicability in depolymerisation of ulvan extracted from three different Ulva species, by Venkat Rao Konasani, Chunsheng Jin, Niclas G. Karlsson and Eva Albers. In Algal Research, 2018.

A novel ulvan lyase family with broad-spectrum activity from the ulvan utilisation loci of Formosa agariphila KMM 3901, by Venkat Rao Konasani, Chunsheng Jin, Nicklas G Karlsson and Eva Albers. In Scientific Reports, October 2018

Production of protein extracts from Swedish red, green, and brown seaweeds, Porphyra umbilicalis Kützing, Ulva lactucaLinnaeus, and Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus) J. V. Lamouroux using three different methods, by Hanna Harrysson, Maria Hayes, Friederike Eimer, Nils-Gunnar Carlsson, Gunilla B. Toth and Ingrid Undeland. In Journal of Applied Phycology, April 2018.

A Strategy for the Sequential Recovery of Biomacromolecules from Red Macroalgae Porphyra umbilicalis Kützing, by Niklas Wahlström, Hanna Harrysson, Ingrid Undeland, and Ulrica M Edlund. In Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, November 2017.

Niklas Wahlströms dissertation at KTH
Photo: Ulrica Edlund

A sustainable source of nanomaterials

Video (3:35)
Sea lettuce offers sustainable source of nanomaterial