Aim & Objective
The Algal Technology Program (ATP) at CSD aims to support national food security and develop renewable bio-feedstocks
for bulk chemicals and high-value nutraceuticals. ATP’s focus is to use non-exhaustible seawater or brackish water,
direct air CO2 capture, and other waste streams (e.g., nutrients containing wastewater) to generate biomass using
indigenous marine microalgae or cyanobacteria as sources of food, feed, and bulk chemicals (e.g., biofertilizer,
bioplastic, biofuel, bio lubricant, etc.), in a circular bio-economy approach, whenever possible.
Program Action Plan
Promising local microalgae/cyanobacteria were cultivated successfully in the desert on a large-scale to demonstrate
the technical feasibility of utilizing marine algae biomass in the formulation of high-quality aqua feed that
supported fish and shrimp growth comparable with imported feed. Similar trials were conducted to produce biomass for
high-value pigments and bulk chemicals. While ATP is highly specialized in the upstream part of algal cultivation
and biomass harvesting, downstream biorefinery processing still needs to be developed to utilize the desired
metabolites better and enhance economic viability. Hence, in the next few years, ATP will dedicate the bulk of its
efforts to developing extraction, conversion (if necessary), and preservation of the desired metabolites and
products at scale. ATP will also conduct large-scale experiments in collaboration with the stakeholders to increase
the TRL of targeted products/processes.