Roquette Eyes Future for Microalgae

In January 2008, ROQUETTE took over the largest fresh water photobioreactor in the world, BPS, Bioprodukte Prof. Steinberg, which has strong expertise in microalgae cultivation for nutritional purposes.

03/12/08 Starch giant Roquette is entering the microalgae sector as part of an innovation programme that will see a further increase in development within the nutrition sector. Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst.com during the company’s 75th anniversary celebration, Chairman of the company Marc Roquette (pictured) said, “We have added microalgae as a new raw material for us. We know that we have to concentrate on high value added products because it’s costly to develop and grow microalgae, but we believe that the potential for that raw material is higher than for our other raw materials”. “It is higher because microalgae is a super vegetable where we have antioxidants, fibre, vitamins and omega 3 and those are the types of products that can be developed. We therefore think that the potential for nutrition and health is rather high with microalgae,” he explained.

In January 2008, ROQUETTE took over the largest fresh water photobioreactor in the world, BPS, Bioprodukte Prof. Steinberg (based in Germany), which has strong expertise in microalgae cultivation for nutritional purposes. ROQUETTE is taking part in the creation of a European sector specialized in microalgae, acting as the project leader (the ALGOHUB program, approved via two national competitiveness hubs and validated by the State body OSEO). This consortium includes industrialists and research and training centers in order to advance knowledge and improve microalgae production effectively.

“For the moment we have taken over a plant in Germany called BPS, it’s the largest phytobioreactor in Europe. There is 500km of glass tubes in a greenhouse of about 1.2 hectares and this plant is producing chlorella, which is one type of algae”, Marc Roquette said. “In fact in nature there are more than 100,000 types of algae but of course for the moment you have to concentrate on algae which have been authorised or if not you have to develop all the background to get the authorisation. We are looking to other types of algae, but for the moment we have to keep it confidential. But we are interested in microalgae with a lot of health potential”, he added.

ROQUETTE has chosen a renewable raw material, microalgae, processed using a production tool, the photobioreactor, which guarantees the absence of external contamination. A "clean" technology, unprecedented in Europe and worldwide, on an industrial scale... for a sustainable innovation. ROQUETTE aspires to become a pioneer, by making it possible to improve knowledge of the unexplored potential of microalgae and helping remove the technological obstacles still impeding its development. Microalgae represent a very promising market, which is just waiting to prove their merits. “With the involvement of our 250 researchers and technicians and the support of our partners included in the ALGOHUB program, we are intent on meeting this challenge”, the company said in a statement.

With the BPS acquisition in early 2008, ROQUETTE is continuing its strategy focusing on the development of specialty products with a high added value and continues to innovate in nutrition and health, in the fields of human nutrition, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, animal nutrition, including aquaculture.

Founded in 1999 on the basis of the research of Professor Steinberg, BPS (Bioprodukte Prof. Steinberg) employs a staff of 20. In 2007, it generated a turnover of more than €1 million. The SME, based in Klötze (Germany, West of Berlin), is specialized in the production of Chlorella genus microalgae for the manufacture of health functionality nutritional supplements, marketed under the ALGOMED brand in Germany and distributed in France under the Echlorial brand. These microalgae are also used in the formulation of cosmetic products and products intended for aquaculture. Chlorella is a unicellular microalgae cultivated in fresh water. Appearing some 2.5 billion years ago, it has been produced in Asia since the 1960s. Over 4 million Japanese people take it every day. It is the leading food supplement in this country. There are several types of chlorella. Three (including Chlorella vulgaris) are intended and authorized for human consumption.

On the basis of the research by its German researchers, BPS has developed a reliable technique in a protected environment: the photobioreactor, that it has operated under an exclusive license since 2000. In Asia or in South America, microalgae production is carried out in ponds or in lagoons, in the open air. The BPS site, in Klötze, contains 20 photobioreactors, each consisting of 25 km of glass tubes, that is some 500 km of tubes exposed to 100% natural light.

Comparable in size to that of a red blood cell, chlorella circulates in tubes filled with nutrient medium. It is reproduced rapidly (one mother cell splits into 4 daughter cells in an interval of 16 to 20 hours) in a protected environment. In addition to its nutritional richness, chlorella offers real potential in terms of physiology and human health. Many scientific studies have been conducted on chlorella in order to study its benefits on health. Conducted both on humans and animals, this research revealed the amazing and very promising properties of this unicellular alga on various bodily functions (excretion system, immune system, etc.).

In Asia, chlorella has been used for many years for its nutritional richness and its detoxification and immune defense potential reinforcing properties. Some studies claim, for example, improved resistance to infections with regular chlorella consumption. Research has also demonstrated that chlorella helps reduce some inflammatory phenomena.

Chlorella vulgaris comprises a 3-layer cell wall, essentially consisting of cellulose and chitin. These constituents give it major absorbing properties with respect to organic toxins (dioxins) or
heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, lead). Chlorella is also sometimes used to decontaminate waste water polluted by heavy metals, particularly in Asia and in South America. In humans, the detoxification properties of chlorella have particularly been studied in Japan.

ROQUETTE is intent on becoming an expert in microalgae production. The aim is to develop products with a high added value in human nutrition, animal nutrition including aquaculture, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

Roquette is the world leader in the polyol sector and one of the top-ranked processors of starch (no. 2 in Europe). In 2007 the company achieved a turnover of over 2.5 billion euros showing a growth of 50% over the last ten years. It processes 6 million tones of renewable raw materials (maize, wheat, potatoes, peas and in the future microalgae) in a range of over 650 products. The company invests over 40 million euros a year in R&D and more than 10% of its turnover in production facilities and equipment.

In terms of future areas for growth Marc Roqutte said that “In the food sector what we really want to do is to focus on the potential of our traditional raw materials like maize, wheat, peas and potatoes. We are developing the soluble fibre Nutriose, but we think that we can manufacture very interesting proteins and also insoluble fibres and we think that we can extract some products from soluble which may be interesting for nutrition”.

Pea is becoming increasingly important for the company and expansion is in the pipeline. “In the pea business we are grinding around 50,000 tonnes and we want to climb that up to 80,000 tonnes of pea. We want to develop pea protein as we think it is very interesting as it has the same types of applications as soy protein and we are developing pea protein in both insoluble type and soluble type. We also intend to develop an insoluble fibre which we think is very interesting and which represents about