The REALM project seeks to transform nutrient-rich drainage waters from soilless farms into valuable resources through decentralised microalgae production. This approach enhances resource re-utilisation and profitability for both microalgae production and soilless farming, while addressing the pressing challenges of freshwater scarcity and the environmental damage caused by nutrient pollution. The strategy involves spreading semi-automatic microalgae production facilities near key resource suppliers. Here biomass is produced, concentrated, and shipped to a central processing facility to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
The REALM project aims to overcome critical bottlenecks hindering the widespread commercialisation of microalgae-based products – such as the high production costs – to make these feedstocks more competitive than less sustainable sources. REALM addresses this challenge by focusing on five crucial inputs for industrial-scale microalgal biomass cultivation: water, nutrients, energy, CO2, and labour. To this end, the project focuses on selecting and optimising resilient, productive and commercially relevant strains under continuous cultivation maintained by membrane-harvesting. Cultivation will be supported by novel sensors and A.I.-based predictive models to enhance operational efficiency. A direct air capture prototype will be tested in the validation facilities to deliver 2-5 % CO2 to the cultures. Downstream, the project adopted a biorefinery approach that maximises biomass valorisation and product development. REALM seeks to generate novel bioproducts with rising global market demand, such as biostimulants and biopesticides for agriculture and aquafeed functional ingredients for aquaculture.
The project comprises 16 partners, including five universities, five non-profit organisations, and six companies with complementary expertise that are merging their knowledge to move forward in the microalgae, agriculture and aquaculture sectors. In this way, REALM aims to develop an innovative, sustainable, and highly efficient strategy for microalgae biomass production and processing applicable to all European countries, thus unlocking the potential of microalgae for a thriving European blue bioeconomy.
