Understanding the Business of Algepreneuers

Perhaps you’ve heard that Grimes, the reigning queen of bizarro-pop, has a new concept album about climate change. By setting the theme to music she hopes for the record to “make climate change fun” — a strong statement to be sure, but the way we read it, the goal is to help people engage with the issue through a new lens.

While an album might not be the most immediately impactful measure to counter a warming planet, approaching climate change from new angles is critical to mitigate the damage that’s already been done. 

We’re past the time where we can recycle and call it a day; we need to reduce emissions, yes, and also actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (You know this; thanks #Greta.)

Trees have long been considered the best way to sequester carbon, but their slow growth means they may not work fast enough to achieve the level of impact needed to temper the effects of climate change. 

Enter: algae. What many of us consider pond scum is actually carbon-capturing superstar, photosynthesizing carbon dioxide to oxygen at ten times the rate of trees while producing 100% usable byproducts, from food to fuel and bioplastics. It’s a prime multitasker, like the Rihanna of plants. . 

And a crop of new businesses —algepreneuers, if you will— are leveraging algae’s renewable properties toward business models that improve the environment while generating revenue. We are among them.

At Hypergiant, we recently announced the development of the Eos Bioreactor, a cube that uses algae to trap carbon in our office HVAC system before it’s dispersed into the atmosphere. Using our own office as a test ground, we’re working to scale the project using AI to optimize algae growing conditions and monitor each reactor. We project that placing more Eos machines in office buildings across major metros could reduce cities’ carbon emissions 400 times faster than trees, meanwhile producing enough byproduct to fuel algae-based consumer goods operations around them.

Here are some of the industries beginning to run on algae.

PLASTICS

Algae oil can make for a more sustainable plastic solution in objects we use day-to-day. One company called Bloom uses algae to create a flexible foam for use in surfboards and shoe soles, improving the local water supply in the process. As it grows, their algae returns the equivalent of 225 bottles of filtered water to the freshwater ecosystem and consumes 21 balloons’ worth of C02. It’s a win of an operation and other companies are following suit: Merrell, Adidas, and H&M are all experimenting with algae foam plastics in shoes. 

While Bloom’s foam plastics are soft, algae polymers can also replace the hard plastic in 3-D printing. The Dutch designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dros, who have been experimenting with algae as a printing material, are also working with Atelier Luma in France to explore applications of algae polymers with designers around the world. It’s still early days, but if if 3-D printing were to scale with algae-based printing materials, industrial manufacturing could go from being a major air pollutant to actively reducing carbon dioxide in the environment.

If only algae could replace Regina George.

FOOD

In its fresh form, algae is also a sustainable food source. Seaweed, of course, has been on tables for centuries, and NASA has used it as a nutritional supplement for space missions because it’s so nutrient-dense and lightweight. And those aren’t the only those properties that make it a scalable staple: it’s a zero-input crop that thrives in both fresh and sea water; it requires no arid land for cultivation; and it provides more protein density per cultivated acre than any other food source, including livestock, meaning that it has the potential to feed many more people in the future.

In the meantime, maybe you’ve recently become aware of chlorella and spirulina. Both have also played prominent roles on wellness-focused menus of late thanks to their significant protein content and high antioxidant and vitamin counts. You might recognize spirulina in the form of Blue Majik, a proprietary strain of blue-green algae developed by E3 Live that’s behind the “mermaid bowls” and “unicorn lattes” dotting Instagram feeds around the globe.

While it’s having a resurgence as a specialty food, more and more people are envisioning the future of spirulina as a staple. The Novotel Hotel in Bangkok, for example, has partnered with the algae startup EnerGaia to operate an algae farm on their roof. For now, the harvest is sold in the hotel café, but the company plans to expand the operation and feed more people with more bioreactors in other unused urban spaces. Meanwhile, the Gates foundation already underwrites programs focused on spirulina farming in developing countries like Bangladesh.

If spirulina and seaweed aren’t your thing, fear not: algae doesn’t have to be eaten alone to be nutritious. One producer of algae oil supplements called iWi is working to harvest their plants’ remaining proteins and carbohydrates for use in consumer packaged foods, and ever on-trend, Triton Algae Innovations is using algae protein to fortify pasta and veggie burgers. If that’s not enough, they’re also leveraging an algae-based heme to make imitation meat products appear to “bleed.” Beats eating crickets, right?

Though it’s been a part of our ecosystem for ages, algae is poised for a major growth moment in the economy. Keep an eye out for algae-based products on shelves in the coming years, and while you’re at it, plant a tree, too. It can’t hurt.