The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to improve shellfish production at scale and in an environmentally sustainable fashion, using oyster farming as a launching pad. Today, most oysters are farmed nearshore under ecological stress. This project advances the culturing of microalgae using internal waste streams and those from other food industries. The focus of this project is to process one of the most abundant, sustainable, and freely available industrial food wastes, spent yeast from breweries, to facilitate algae production at scale onshore and indoors. Although currently used primarily by the food and chemical industries, the less costly algal product could also energize areas of food and feed, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, biomaterials, and bioremediation services.The proposed project will advance the use of off-the-shelf bioreactors and a novel substrate which, along with CO2, form plant tissue heterotrophically in the dark as leaves do photosynthetically in the presence of sunlight. The proposed substrate enables production at scale of the single-celled microalgae that comprise much of the nearshore bivalve diet. The yeast is fermented with both agriculture-grade vitamins and plant-based commodities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
