Farjana Akter
Project Title: Identification and characterization of high-value products from microalgae
Supervisors: Unnikrishnan Kuzhiumparambil, Peter Ralph, Jonas Gustafsson (Cytiva)
Contact Detail: Farjana.Akter@student.uts.edu.au
Project Background: In recent years, polysaccharides sourced from macroalgae have been studied extensively for food, biopharma, biomedical, nutraceuticals applications due to their promising rheological and bioactive properties. Agarose, alginate, ulvan, and carrageenan are some molecules produced from seaweed with significant industrial applications as fertilizers, food additives, stabilizers, animal feed, and biopharma applications having total value of $ 785 million. The natural resources for production of these molecules are sharply declining due to overharvesting and extreme climate events. The possibility to explore microalgae as an alternative to produce value-added products including polysaccharides with industrial application is an exciting avenue and offers a sustainable and environment friendly alternative. Little research has been performed on microalgae polysaccharides to investigate their potential of commercial application. Even though there are some scattered studies detailing the polysaccharide composition and limited physiochemical properties, there is a huge gap in comprehensive knowledge on the microalgal polysaccharides and its potential for industrial application.
Project Aims: The aim of this project is to perform a complete chemical characterisation of novel polysaccharide molecules isolated from different microalgal species and cyanobacteria and study their physiochemical and rheological properties briefly. The results obtained from this work will help to better understand the potential application of the microalgal polysaccharides in industries (mainly as a gelling agent) and therefore, their feasibility as an alternative of seaweed polysaccharides.