AT~SEA Technologies to sell mobile seaweed farms
Four Flemish businesses make up the eight-partner consortium AT~SEA, an innovative concept that finds seaweed farms being established on large sheets of specially formulated textiles
New industry for Europe
The start-up is the result of three years of research as part of the European project AT~SEA. Eleven partner organisations collaborated to examine whether seaweed cultivation is economically and technically feasible on an industrial scale in Europe. As the results were positive, eight partners have launched the start-up.
West Flanders textile company Sioen will provide the textile sheets on which the seaweed plants grow (pictured) in co-operation with research institute Centexbel from East Flanders. Cable producer Bexco in Hamme, East Flanders, will create a special lightweight cable with which the textile sheets can be anchored in the sea. Devan Chemicals from Ronse, also in East Flanders, will develop micro fertiliser capsules. The other partners come from Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Morocco.
“In Asia, huge amounts of seaweed are already being produced, but in a very labour-intensive way that is only profitable because of the low salaries being paid,” Bert Groenendaal from Sioen, who co-ordinated the AT~SEA research project, told Flanders Today last summer. The new technique, allows for the large-scale growth and harvest of seaweed without requiring extensive manpower.
In Asia, seaweed is mostly produced to be used in food. But seaweed is also growing in popularity as an component in biochemical products and materials.
