Facilities & projects
Ongoing operations
Alginor is currently in a piloting/early demonstration phase and is well underway with preparing its upscaling activities for its demonstration phase through the DACOTA Project under Horizon 2020.
Pilot facility in Skudeneshavn
Our pilot facility in Skudeneshavn, Norway, is a reception and early-processing facility for production of storage-safe ASMs. Harvesting takes place in close proximity to the pilot facility’s location. Next steps include up-scaling the facility to meet the demand of our future biorefinery demonstration plant.
Oewa Laboratories
Our in-house laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art HPLC (High-performance Liquid Chromatography), SEC-MALS (Size Exclusion Chromatography with Multi-Angle Light Scattering), FTIR (Fourier-Transform-Infrared) and Raman spectroscopy. The laboratory enables us to perform in-depth analyses, quality control, advanced research and product development.
NMR spectroscopy analyses are performed at the University of Bergen.
Piloting partners
Alginor conducts large-scale pilot runs at the following facilities: Borregaard Biorefinery Demo in Sarpsborg (pictured), Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant in Ghent, Belgium, and Nofima Biotep outside Tromsø.
External piloting offers valuable insight into process optimisation and equipment selection.
Ongoing development projects
Alginor’s development budget for the period 2014–2023 is MNOK 169, whereof MNOK 74 has incurred as of 31 December 2020 and MNOK 93 remains. Of the MNOK 149, MNOK 111.6 is funded through public grants.
Our team has extensive experience with carrying out advanced development projects and recently completed the AORTA 2 project, Alginor’s first major EU project. Currently, we are well on our way with the DACOTA project, which is a continuation of the findings from AORTA 2. Simultaneously, we are carrying through several advanced development projects related to various product applications.
Alginor ASA is an awardee of the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) “Green Deal” Horizon 2020 call. The Company’s DACOTA proposal for upscaling and commercialisation of the findings from the AORTA 2 project was selected for the maximum applicable amount of €17.5 million in the form of so-called “blended finance”, whereof €2.5 million is in the form of a grant and up to €15 million is long-term equity financing from the European Union.
The Company’s DACOTA project launched 2 November 2020 and is projected to conclude in June 2022. The project findings will form the basis for an investment decision to be taken in April 2022 regarding a new harvesting vessel, an ASM reception facility, a biorefinery and a demonstrator API unit. We aim to enter the operational demonstration phase in June 2023. Our target in the demonstration phase is an annual harvesting and processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes of wet kelp. The objective of the demonstration phase is to validate the company’s technologies and the production of the company’s main offerings on a large scale, before executing an investment decision regarding a full-scale industrial biorefinery with a target annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes wet kelp.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101011290.
Fucomed
Our Fucomed project is an industrial development project exploring fucoidan’s potential in bio-medical applications in collaboration with the University of Bergen, the University of Oslo and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
The main objective of the project is upscaling the extraction process for fucoidan from lab-scale to industrial scale for the production of pharmaceutical and medical applications and devices.
Fucomed has an estimated budget of NOK 23.2 million. NOK 16.24 million of the funds for this project will come from a grant from the Norwegian Research Council. The project is expected to be completed in 2023.
CarboNor
Our CarboNor project focuses on converting carbohydrate polymers into high-value biotech products in collaboration with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
The main objective of the project is to show that the parties’ technologies are combinable and scalable to an industrial level for the production of high-quality alginates, including oligo-saccharides, and cellulose for pharmaceutical and medical applications and devices.
Alginor’s project budget in the Carbonor project is NOK 8.2 million. NOK 4.1 million of the funds will come from a grant (formally awarded by Eurostars (Eureka)) from the Norwegian Research Council. The project is expected to be completed in 2022.
ALEHOOP
ALEHOOP is an international consortium project focusing on combining proteins from marine and terrestrial by-products into novel food and feed products. Alginor’s role in the project is to analyse the biomass and the proteins, and supply 12 companies spread over Europe with proteins from kelp by-products. The proteins will be used for manufacturing a variety of products including, among others, protein bars, shakes and vegetarian meat alternatives.
Alginor’s project budget in the ALEHOOP project is NOK 5 million. NOK 4.1 million is funded by a grant awarded by the European Union. The project is expected to be completed during 2024.
The project has its own website. View it here.
Polyphenols
The Polyphenols project focuses on analysis and bioprospecting of polyphenols from Laminaria hyperborea for applications as Life Science Ingredients. The project is a joint PhD project between Alginor, one of our PhD candidates and the University of Bergen’s Department of Chemistry.
The main objective of the project is to obtain more information on Laminaria hyperborea’s polyphenols, on exact molecular level, and research the polyphenols’ suitability for use in food, feed and health by optimising extraction, isolation, identification and quantification methods for these compounds.
The project is financed by Alginor and the Norwegian Research Council with 50% each. The project is expected to be completed during 2023.
Algefilm
The objective of our Algefilm project is to utilise components in Laminaria hyperborea for the production of sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics. The project is carried out by Hypomar AS along with Oewa AS and DYPP as partners, with Nofima and RISE PFI as suppliers, and Notpla, Elopak and Borregaard as subcontractors.
The Research Council of Norway funds the project at 70% aid intensity, giving Hypomar AS a grant of NOK 12.6 million, for a total budget of NOK 18 million. The project begins in August and is expected to be completed during 2023.
Alginor’s extensive publically funded project track record
