Latest / The Manufacturing Podcast with Fexingo: Factories, Supply Chains, and Industrial Business / How a UK Factory Turns Algae into Bioplastic Packaging
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want you to picture a factory. It's on the coast of Cornwall, in southwest England. The building looks like a cross between a greenhouse and a chemical plant. Rows of clear tubes, about five inches in diameter, snake along the floor — and inside those tubes, the water is bright emerald green. Luna: That green is algae, right? Lucas: Exactly. This factory is run by a company called Algapack — and they're not just growing algae. They're turning it into plastic packaging. The kind of clear trays you'd see holding cherry tomatoes or berries at a grocery store. Except this plastic doesn't come from petroleum. It comes from photosynthesis. Luna: So the packaging is biodegradable? Compostable? Lucas: Both, actually. The material breaks down in industrial composting facilities within 90 days. But here's the part that got my attention: Algapack claims that for every tonne of algae-based plastic they produce, they displace roughly one point two tonnes of carbon dioxide compared to conventional plastic. And they're doing it at a facility that's been running commercially since 2023. Luna: Okay, so let's get into the numbers. How much are they producing? Lucas: Right now, the factory has about 20,000 square feet of production space. They produce around 50 tonnes of dried algae per year. That gets processed into pellets, which are then injection-moulded or thermoformed into packaging. Compare that to a typical plastic pellet factory that might churn out 50,000 tonnes a year. So it's tiny. But the question is whether it can scale. Luna: And what's the cost per kilo? Because conventional plastic pellets are around one dollar fifty per kilogram, give or take. Lucas: That's the hurdle. Algapack's current cost of production is around three dollars fifty per kilogram. They've publicly stated their target is to get below three dollars by 2027 — at which point they become competitive, especially if carbon taxes or plastic taxes are factored in. The UK, remember, introduced a plastic packaging tax in 2022 that charges about 210 pounds per tonne for packaging containing less than 30 percent recycled content. Luna: So the tax effectively makes their product cheaper by comparison. That's a real incentive. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why a major UK supermarket — I won't name them, but it's one of the big four — has started using Algapack's trays for a limited run of organic produce. The trays are stamped with 'made from algae' and a compostability logo. Early customer feedback, according to the company, has been positive, though sales data isn't public yet. Luna: Let's back up a step. How do you even get plastic from algae? I think most people imagine algae as the green scum on a pond. Lucas: Right. The species they use is called Phaeodactylum tricornutum — it's a diatom, a type of microalgae. It's grown in seawater, in those tubular bioreactors I mentioned. The tubes are made of a transparent polymer, and the algae circulate continuously, fed by carbon dioxide that's bubbled in. Sunlight drives photosynthesis. The algae multiply fast — they can double their biomass every 24 hours. That's way faster than any terrestrial crop. Luna: So the bioreactor is basically a super-efficient farm. No soil, no fresh water needed if they use seawater. And they're sequestering CO2 in the process. Lucas: Exactly. After the algae has grown to the right density, it's harvested — the water is filtered out, leaving a thick paste. That paste is then dried and milled into a fine powder. The powder is compounded with a few biodegradable additives — plasticisers, colourants — and extruded into pellets. Those pellets are the raw material for packaging. Luna: What about the water? Is it recycled back into the system? Lucas: Yes, and this is one of the smartest parts of their process. The water from the filtration step is treated and cycled back into the bioreactors. They claim a 95 percent water recirculation rate. So it's not just the plastic that's green — the manufacturing process itself is relatively resource-light. Luna: That's impressive. But 50 tonnes a year is a drop in the ocean. What's the path to scaling up? Lucas: The company recently secured a 5 million pound grant from Innovate UK — that's the government innovation agency — to build a second, larger facility. Their plan is to increase capacity to 500 tonnes per year by 2028. And they're also exploring partnerships with cosmetics companies for algae-based packaging for lotions and shampoos. The technology is modular — the bioreactors are essentially off-the-shelf units that can be stacked and expanded. Luna: Is there a risk of contamination? If you're using seawater, you've got bacteria, other algae species. Lucas: It's a real operational challenge. The company runs a continuous monitoring system using optical sensors and automated pH control. They also use a closed-loop sterilization process between batches. But contamination is probably the single biggest technical risk. If a batch goes bad, you have to flush the whole system and start over. That's costly. Luna: And they're competing with other bioplastics too — PLA from corn starch, PHA from bacterial fermentation. Why bet on algae? Lucas: The argument for algae is that it doesn't compete with food crops for land or fresh water. Corn-based PLA requires agricultural land, fertilizer, water. Algae can be grown on non-arable coastal land using seawater. Also, algae's growth rate is higher — you can harvest it weekly, versus a single annual harvest for corn. And the CO2 sequestration angle is stronger per hectare. A study from the University of Cambridge estimated that algae-based plastics could have a carbon footprint 70 to 80 percent lower than petroleum plastics, depending on the energy source used for processing. Luna: What about end of life? If it composts in 90 days industrially, what happens if it ends up in the ocean or a landfill? Lucas: That's a fair question. In a landfill, without oxygen, it will degrade much slower — but it will eventually biodegrade, unlike conventional plastic which essentially lasts forever. In the ocean, the material will break down, but the rate depends on temperature and microbial activity. The company says it's tested the material in marine environments and found significant degradation within a year. That's not ideal — you don't want it in the ocean at all — but it's better than persistent microplastics. Luna: One thing that strikes me is the location. Cornwall is a coastal region with a strong tourism economy. A factory like this could be a model for other coastal communities looking to diversify. Lucas: That's exactly what the local economic development agency is hoping. The factory employs about 30 people now, mostly technicians, biochemists, and production operators. The new facility could add another 50 jobs. And it's part of a broader push in the UK to build a 'bioeconomy' in peripheral regions. The UK government's Industrial Strategy identifies algae biotech as a priority area. Luna: You know, it's interesting to see a genuinely novel manufacturing process that isn't just about efficiency gains — it's about changing the raw material base entirely. That's rare. Lucas: It is. And it's still early. But if they can hit that cost target and scale up, algae-based plastic could go from a niche curiosity to a meaningful category. And conversations like this — where we dig into the actual operations — that's exactly the kind of thing that keeps us going on this show. Luna: Which is a good reminder — we do this show ad-free, and listener support is what makes that possible. If you find value in these deep dives into specific factories and technologies, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to keep us independent. Lucas: Yeah, we've never run a sponsor read, and we don't plan to. So if these episodes have given you one useful insight, that link is there. And it genuinely helps. Luna: Alright, back to the factory. Lucas, one more thing — what's the energy footprint of the process? Because drying algae takes heat. Lucas: That's actually one of the bigger energy costs. The drying step alone accounts for about 30 percent of the total energy use. The company is looking at using waste heat from a nearby data centre — there's a new server farm being built about five miles away. If they can capture that heat for free, it would significantly improve the carbon balance and the cost. Luna: So the whole model is about integration — using waste streams, coastal land, seawater, and now waste heat. It's a systems-level approach. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why I find this case so compelling. It's not just a material substitute; it's an example of how manufacturing can be rethought from the ground up. The question is whether it can survive the economics. But the direction is promising. Luna: Alright, we'll keep watching Algapack. Next episode: we're going to a factory in Norway that's using hydropower to make green ammonia. That should be a good one. Lucas: Looking forward to it. Until then.