GLOBAL ALGAE INNOVATIONS, INC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase II: 8.7

Description

This project will support the expansion of the domestic aquaculture industry through developmentof algae aquafeed ingredients.Successful completion will increase the production of algae a typeof aquaculture and will increase the availability of affordable sustainable feed for expansion of ourdomestic fish and shellfish aquaculture industries.Feed is the largest and most important component to ensuring safe abundant and affordable animalproteins.Feed accounts for 40-60% of the production costs in aquaculture so good quality feeds atreasonable prices is essential for success of the aquaculture industry. Global capture fisheries havebeen level for several decades so algae sources of protein and omega-3 oil would enable for fasterdevelopment of aquaculture.Global Algae Innovations has developed economical scalable open pond algae productiontechnology for aquaculture feed. In Phase 1 Global Algae demonstrated production of an algaefeed ingredient with a higher the protein content and greater digestibility than fishmeal.Additionally Global Algae produced high omega-3 oil diatom algae with oil digestibilitycomparable to fishmeal. The proposed Phase 2 research and development includes (i) productivityimprovements for cultivation of algae aquafeed strains (ii) optimizing the composition of the feedingredients; (iii) extensive feeding trials with yellowtail at Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute and(iv) starting regulatory approvals for the new feed ingredients.The new feed ingredients will compete with the high-quality protein ingredients in aquaculturefeed which is currently about $25 billion per year and is expected increase to approximately $60billion per year in 2023