Danish-produced microalgae could become the sustainable alternative to imported soy, which is currently a significant source of carbon emissions. The Danish Technological Institute (Teknologisk Institut) is behind a new project that has recently harvested the first microalgae grown in 90-meter-long plastic tubes fed with CO2 from a biogas plant in Brande, Midtjylland.
Anne Marie Hansen, the innovation manager at the Danish Technological Institute, highlights the many possibilities and potential of microalgae. “There is increasing competition for land area and more focus on the fact that microalgae offer many solutions and have plenty of product opportunities,” she says. The facility in Brande is the largest of its kind in the area and has the capacity to produce high-quality protein. According to Hansen, you can produce approximately 20 times more protein per hectare compared to soy.
Microalgae have been mentioned as one of ten groundbreaking new technologies by the World Economic Forum, and the potential to use them to extract CO2 from the air and utilize land more efficiently has generated great interest. “I have been in love with microalgae for many years. But there has been a lot of momentum in the field due to the possibility of extracting CO2 from the air and using land more efficiently,” Hansen adds.
One of the major organic egg and vegetable producers in Denmark, Axel Månsson, supports the project. The CO2 that feeds the microalgae comes from his chicken manure and vegetable waste, which is processed in a biogas plant. Månsson, who produces 20 percent of the total organic egg production in Denmark, hopes to find an alternative to soy. “We would like to find a different feed supplement than soy, which we cannot grow in Europe and leads to deforestation in South America. So, there are many considerations for climate and sustainability in finding alternatives to the existing ones,” he says.
The majority of Danish imports of soybean meal for livestock come from Brazil and Argentina, where production often leads to deforestation. The microalgae from the Brande project could therefore be a significant step towards a more sustainable and climate-friendly future.