This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 Project is to investigate the technical feasibility for harvesting natural carotenoids from the marine algae, "Dunaliella salina". Due to the high capital and operating costs associated with existing technologies, the current price of natural beta-carotene is about twice that of the synthetic variety. By enabling the commercial production of natural beta-carotene at a cost closer to that of the synthetic product, this research is expected to lead to a significant growth of the "natural beta-carotene" market. The specific objective of the Phase I research is to determine the feasibility of a low-cost method to harvest the above mentioned marine algae from the growth medium and to extract the beta-carotene from this algae. The technology to be developed in this project could also be used to harvest and to purify other carotenoids from the algae. The commercial application of this project will be in the beta-carotene market. Beta-carotene is currently used for a wide range of applications : as a nutritional supplement, as an agent for food fortification, as an animal feed, and as a food colorant.
