The ReSEAlience project pioneers a transformative approach in the sustainable valorization of marine bioresources, focusing on seaweed and halophytes.
The ReSEAlience project is rethinking how we use marine plants like seaweed and Salicornia, a salt-tolerant plant, to create a more sustainable future. By developing a smart, eco-friendly “biorefinery,” the project turns these plants into useful products—like biofuels, animal feed, and even textiles—while helping to clean our oceans.
One of the project’s key ideas is using these plants in Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems. This means growing fish, shellfish, and plants together in a way that helps reduce pollution, especially excess nutrients in the water.
At the heart of the process is a green extraction method called HALOREFINE, which safely pulls out valuable compounds from the plants without using harmful chemicals. Remaining fractions after extraction of main and valuable component is turned into other materials—like cellulose for textiles, sugars for energy, and proteins for feed—ensuring nothing is wasted. In an exciting twist, co-streams after plant processing are even being turned into sustainable fabrics.
Special methods are used to extract fibers from both Salicornia and seaweed, offering an eco-friendly alternative to cotton and synthetic materials. With this zero-waste approach, ReSEAlience is showing how sea plants can power a cleaner, more resilient future across use of oceans, fashion, and fuel.
Moreover, the project explores the innovative cultivation of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) and marine Thraustochytrids, using the partially processed residual biomass as feed to transforms the biomass into a rich source of proteins and fats, demonstrating an advanced approach to waste valorization within the biorefinery model.
SINTEF Ocean leads work package 1 (WP1): Biomass Management and Conditioning, and will be involved in experimental planning, lab-scale and pilot-scale trials, quality analyses, and evaluation of the most suitable technologies for preservation, fractionation, and processing of seaweeds.
Coordinator: Luleå Tekniska Universitet (LTU), Sweden. 13 partners from 10 countries.
