SUCCESS STORIES

Promogal

First industrial prototype for the customised production of high-value ingredients from microalgae

ANFACO-CYTMA has developed the first industrial prototype for intelligent microalgae production, opening a new business line focused on the tailored formulation of high-value ingredients. The system integrates advanced sensing, automation, process control, artificial intelligence and data analytics to direct microalgae metabolism towards specific compounds with consistent, reproducible quality, meeting the requirements of regulated sectors such as food, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

The project represents a qualitative leap from experimental production, leveraging ANFACO-CYTMA’s infrastructure — which includes an industrial photobioreactor, a pilot 4.0 photobioreactor and an algae and microalgae cultivation room — to validate intelligent production technologies under real industrial conditions. The centre acts as the driver of a new applied R&D activity, generating proprietary and protected know-how that is difficult to replicate and strengthens the competitive advantage of companies in the sector.

Keywords

Biotechnology
Microalgae

Technology Centre

ANFACO-CYTMA

Date

2022-2025

The technological core of the prototype lies in the precise control of critical cultivation parameters — light, nutrients, CO₂, temperature and metabolic stress — managed through AI systems and real-time data analytics. This control reduces process variability, increases reproducibility and ensures consistent quality, a key requirement for accessing high-value markets. The result is a directed formulation platform capable of guiding microalgae production towards pigments, functional lipids, proteins, antioxidants or polysaccharides according to each B2B client’s specific needs.

The project also incorporates a sustainability dimension: the efficient use of resources — water, nutrients and energy — and the valorisation of CO₂ open the door to integrating these systems into circular economy models, with the possibility of incorporating effluents and agro-industrial by-products as feedstocks. The generation of protected, hard-to-replicate know-how positions ANFACO-CYTMA as a technological reference in high-precision microalgae production for the food industry and related sectors.