French Federation’s 2nd Congress to focus on scientific breakthroughs in algae

Coming off the back of its first congress two years ago, Alg’n’Chem 2014 will look at the opportunities offered by micro- and macro- algae and focus on the demand, which o this day, remains underutilised.

“It is necessary to combine the talents, and energies to develop processes and production chains based on algae,”​ says FFC.

Sustainable ingredient​

Algae has become an increasingly important ingredient for a cross-section of cosmetic and personal care ingredients, and is emerging as a segment with several opportunities for development.

The algae has been traditionally harvested for food products and ingredients, but is increasingly being added to cosmetics as biotechnology has made it easier to produce and process into value-added ingredients.

Farmed algae is of particular interest as it has a much more sustainable profile than many other marine-based extracts.

More and more algae ingredients such as coastal plants, seaweeds and sea minerals are making their way into cosmetic products and hold the key to be the future's sustainable ingredient alternatives.

Challenges​

However, according to FFC, many challenges remain, such as to explore new fields for the development of algal resources in order to open new markets, reduce production costs, energy costs, and those of processing, packaging and reducing environmental impacts.

It requires the involvement of multiple disciplines to overcome these obstacles (biology, chemistry, process engineering and equipment), says the French organisation.

Congress​

As such, FFC will conduct the next conference in Montpellier, France from March 31 - April 3, 2014, with the aim of promoting public and private research and development for the valuation of algae.

It will address key themes through a multidisciplinary and multi-sector approach, from their culture to various potential opportunities.

The objective is to establish the state of the art for the valuation of algae, to detect the latest scientific, technical and technological breakthroughs, and identify new developments and opportunities.