Fredricka Gullfot, Founder of Simris Alg

Think Scandinavia is too cold to grow algae? Think again. That’s exactly what Fredricka Gullfot is looking to do with her company Simris Alg\ Below, she answers a few questions on how her company is looking to bring the algae industry to Sweden.

1. What made you want to start an algae company in your home country of Sweden?

I am a great fan of bio-based and sustainable technologies. I had been following the algae field for about five years, and was very excited about its development globally. I was surprised when I learned that the Swedish company BioReal (now subsidiary to Fuji Chemicals Ltd) who commercialized astaxanthin production about a decade ago had no followers whatsoever in our country. There are many valuable and unique substances that can be produced with microalgae, and as a biotechnologist with an entrepreneurial background I became excited about the opportunity to contribute to a whole new industry in Sweden.

2. What are the goals of your algae company, Simris Alg?

Top priority is of course to develop Simris Alg into a viable and thriving business. We will offer an attractive range of innovative algae-based products in the functional food and health segment. Our process is based on a sustainable biorefinery concept, exploiting the whole value chain of products and services.

Also, we are active as consultants and contract researchers in the cleantech field, where we see a great demand from both existing and potential customers. Since we still are a very small company with no dedicated R&D resources of our own, this is our opportunity to contribute to the development in the field. I believe the integration of microalgal cultivation with existing industrial processes is the key to sustainable bulk production of e.g. algae-based biofuels.

3. What obstacles have you had to overcome?

Growing microalgae is a completely new field in Sweden. As forerunners, we constantly have to educate our public and it is a challenge to show the great potential of algae while at the same time proving our business focus. As entrepreneurs with substantial capital needs it is also hard to find good networks of advisers and investors, in comparison to e.g. IT or mobile services. That said, we have done very well so far. We have still made it completely without venture capital, by classic financial bootstrapping strategies and some soft funding.

The largest practical set-back so far was having no laboratory access during spring this year. We had been promised laboratory space at a university business incubator before Christmas, but the whole process was delayed. Meanwhile, we had to keep our strain collections at the office… In April, we gave up, and within a day we found a local pharma company with spare space and moved in.

4. How will growing algae in Sweden differ from other parts of the world?

Successful operations in microalgae will always have to take the regional parameters into account and use them to their benefit. We do not have large desert areas with abundant sunlight all year round, which generally might be considered the ideal conditions for growing algae. But what we do have is a moderate climate with less need for cooling, significantly extended hours of daylight in the growing season, lots of water, great industrial waste streams for growing algae (CO2, nutrients and heat), a world-class process industry, and a general aptitude for new and green technologies and building great companies. Also, sun conditions and PAR levels are much better in certain regions in Sweden than for example in Germany or the Netherlands, where successful commercial algae operations already are in place.

That said, our own business is focussed on high-value products that will be grown in closed-system photobioreactors in greenhouses with controlled climate and light conditions, so the geographic parameters are not that much of an issue to us at the moment. We see our success factors rather in the network and collaborations we can create with related partner industries. Sweden is somewhat of a developing country in terms of algae, and we are heavily dependent on international collaborations to gain access to necessary know-how and technologies. The upside here is that we can kick off our industry at the current state-of-the-art level. So in general, countries like ours could eventually play somewhat of a “dark horse” role in the growing algae world, of course depending on the application in question. But I think everybody agrees that there is more to algae than just bulk products and fuels.

5. In a past interview on Biomime.org, you said you hoped production would begin in Summer 2011. Is this still the case?

Actually yes – at a small scale. We have recently established our laboratory facilities and are just about to start trial-scale production of our first products, so no summer vacation for us this year… Our next big milestone is of course to build our first commercial scale production facility, in spring 2012.

We have also performed a very interesting feasibility study on site at a large Swedish industrial plant, growing algae on carbon dioxide and waste water from a fermentation process. It’s been a busy year so far.

6. Have you received outside support for this venture. If so, from where?

We have received a competitive startup grant from the VINNOVA Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems and the Swedish Energy Agency, and minor development grants from Innovationsbron and ALMI Innovation, both public innovation funding agencies. Our running costs have so far been covered by our own revenues from the cleantech business. Now, we have a big challenge ahead – to attract capital to build our commercial-scale production plant in spring 2012.

Fredricka Gullfot
Founder
Simris Alg
http://www.simrisalg.se/