Sustainable use of marine resources

Marine biological resources are renewable, but limited and should be utilized in a sustainable way in order not to jeopardize the future supply. MAREFINE aims to enable the establishment of a blue biorefinery in Sweden where unutilized marine residual streams are utilized and refined into high-value products.

In the EU, as in Sweden, the maritime industries have been identified as growth industries and there are also strategies for the development of commercial fishing and aquaculture towards more innovative and resource-efficient value chains. 

26 000 tons of residual raw materials

Today, 26,000 tons of residual raw materials are generated from seafood processing in Sweden, with the majority going to feed, biogas and in some cases destruction. There is huge potential to develop more sustainable and healthy products from the sea that can help feed a growing world population if done in a sustainable way.

A blue biorefinery

The biorefinery is the technological key that enables what is today considered as residual streams or waste to be transformed into high-value products. In MAREFINE we will evaluate the processing potential of residual streams from salmon, herring, wolfish (green algae), sugar kelp, diatoms and shrimp. The benefits of a blue biorefinery will be maximized, both from a sustainability and an economic perspective, by utilizing the whole biomass and extracting as many valuable components as possible to create high-value end products.

In cooperation with the industry

This will be done in a broad collaboration between companies generating these side streams, researchers and users of the new products developed. The project will also focus on identifying and removing barriers and developing a business plan for the establishment of a blue biorefinery.

The project is owned and led by RISE and Innovatum Science Park is leading innovation and business development work packages that will result in new products and services with strong business potential that can fill gaps in the blue bio value chains and strengthen the blue biorefinery.

Read more about MAREFINE