ASTEASIER · Novel and sustainable biotechnological approaches for astaxanthin and ketocarotenoids production

Microalgae are photosynthetic unicellular microorganisms which can be cultivated at industrial level and adopted as sustainable platforms to produce high value biobased products. Astaxanthin and omega-3 fatty acids are examples of high value metabolites which can be produced by microalgae and that are relevant for both human and animal nutrition. Astaxanthin is widely used in animal feed for its pigmentation properties, but it’s also used in nutraceutics, being among the strongest antioxidants found in nature. Despite the high potential of microalgae, nowadays astaxanthin is mainly derived from chemical synthesis, due to the high costs for natural astaxanthin production and extraction, with selling price in the market reaching several thousands of €/kg. However, synthetic astaxanthin has a far less antioxidant power compared to natural one and its production processes present several sustainability issues. The ASTEASIER project starts from the results of ERC PoC project Asteasy, where novel biotechnological solutions to efficiently produce natural astaxanthin were developed, reducing the production costs compared to the state-of-the-art processes. Moreover, the ASTEASIER solution allows an easy extraction of astaxanthin in a wide range of bland solvents, and the simultaneous production of both astaxanthin and omega-3, required for fish feed formulation, were developed. Here these innovations will be validated in demonstrator units and tested for aquaculture feed formulation. ASTEASIER proposal is thus focused on the development and validation of these novel methods to produce and extract astaxanthin from microalgae and aims, in line with the EIC Transition work Pogramme, to take the technologies to TRL6 and to spin-off a company who will become leader in engineering microalgae to produce and sell natural products such as astaxanthin for human and animal nutrition and wellness