The Antigua and Barbuda Department of Analytical Services shipped a full 20ft container of sargassum seaweed to Finland totalling over 20,000kg.
On the receiving end will be Origin by Ocean a Finnish company being incubated within the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) S3I Innovation Centre in Sweden.
This is the second shipment of sargassum being sent to Finland as part of the first phase of a project being developed by Origin by Ocean to design a new biorefinery process (Nauvu®) for the extraction of biomolecules for use in food, cosmetics, and domestic detergent, all from marine biomass.
This second shipment is one of several that will be shipped to Finland later this year to be used by the company to do initial reference trials of the Nauvu® process against the benchmark feedstock of Bladderwrack seaweed.
The collaboration between Origin by Ocean and the Department of Analytical Services is being facilitated by the Antigua and Barbuda Science Innovation Park (ABSIP) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
The long-term goal of the initiative currently being explored is to establish a biorefinery in Antigua and Barbuda where sargassum seaweed can be processed into a range of products.
Island Sanitation was acknowledged by the Department for their contributions in the collection handling of the Seaweed and Brysons Shipping for Shipping and logistical arrangements.
