المملكة: Great benefits.. "KAUST" Succeed in converting food waste into sustainable ingredients
Researchers discovered in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology "KAUST" A new property in an ancient lineage of algae, and they took advantage of it to convert Chocolate factory waste turns into C-phycocyanin, a valuable blue pigment whose global market value is estimated to reach more than 275 million US dollars by 2030.
The study published in the scientific journal (Trends in Biotechnology) explained how a strain of red algae known as (Galdieria yellowstonesis) can consume the sugars found in Waste of chocolate manufacturing, turning it into a protein-rich biomass containing the pigment (C-phycocyanin), used in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products.
In addition to these results, something unexpected was discovered, which is that high levels of carbon dioxide promote the growth of these algae, even though carbon dioxide is usually a waste resulting from microbes consuming sugar.
Significant cost reduction
The KAUST associate professor said The lead author of the study, Kyle Laursen: "Our study of metabolic mechanisms in algae reveals new ways to transform waste into high-value products in a sustainable way. For example, the chocolate industry produces waste when production lines start and stop, and we realized that this waste could be a useful and suitable food for the algae (Galdieria)."
More recently, phycocyanin extracted from Galdieria algae, including blue C-phycocyanin, has been deemed safe for food use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is suitable for beverages and other food applications.
In an achievement that reflects Saudi Arabia’s leadership in adopting sustainable solutions, KAUST researchers were able to transform chocolate manufacturing residues and carbon dioxide into a natural blue dye used in food and cosmetic products.
This innovation is based on special algae that the team discovered can grow based on these residues, in…
In comparison with traditional methods of extracting them using cyanobacteria, this approach allows "KAUST" Based on the use of algae, a significant reduction in costs and an increase in productivity rates, as the hot and highly acidic environment in which Galdieria algae grow can reduce the presence of other microbes.
Using locally available waste
In the context of their research experiments, Laursen and his scientific team collected waste from a chocolate factory in the Kingdom, as the researchers plan to develop this process by evaluating the scalability and technical capacity of Galdieria production processes using locally available waste. This will help more companies in the Kingdom to effectively transition towards a circular carbon economy.
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