SuperCrude is the world’s first programmable biomass, designed for rapid innovation to power a clean ingredient supply chain revolution
Biomaterials company Marine Biologics today announced the launch of SuperCrude™, the world’s first programmable biomass. Designed from seaweed to work with the company’s open-source cheminformatics models, SuperCrude empowers customers to develop new compounds for next-generation innovations. This first commercial SuperCrude product supports the creation of natural emulsifiers for clean-label products across industries. Future versions for bioactives and proteins are in development.
Marine Biologics’ SuperCrudes are proprietary macroalgae solutions that feature a consistent benchmarked chemical composition, enabling innovation across major industry applications within the food, agriculture and health sectors. Marine Biologics produces SuperCrude solutions by combining select, globally-sourced seaweed species from targeted locations, such as the pristine waters of Alaska. Each SuperCrude meets rigorous quality, safety and manufacturing standards to ensure consistency and quality across every production batch.
“Industry is eager for clean-label ingredients that can be plugged into existing mass manufacturing processes, but consistent supply has historically been unavailable,” said Marine Biologics CEO Patrick Griffin. “Our groundbreaking new process turns seaweed into an innovation platform able to fill commercial production needs for clean-label products at scale. Our first SuperCrude solution is the foundation for a range of novel, nature-based emulsification ingredients for the food industry, but it is just the beginning of a broader lineup of precise, made-to-order starting materials for a range of applications.”
Today, sustainable alternatives to chemically produced or fossil fuel-originated product ingredients are rarely available at scale, can be inconsistent over time and are often single-sourced for narrow applications. As a result, materials suppliers for clean-label products are estimated to waste 15 months developing new materials and up to $30 billion every year. Marine Biologics solves this challenge using machine learning and green chemistry to create consistent, stable and scalable clean ingredient systems from macroalgae.
The company’s initial SuperCrude is a product of Marine Biologics’ proprietary three phase refinement process: Mapping, Stabilization and Assembly. First, its proprietary cheminformatics platform MacroLink™ is built on top of its vast database of the world’s known seaweed molecular structures. Commercial-ready seaweed species are then stabilized and stored as liquid crudes to avoid the loss of valuable compounds typical with industry’s standard harsh-drying processes. Finally, with guidance from MacroLink, these liquid crudes can be assembled into novel nature-based chemical systems known as SuperCrudes that are custom-designed to match specific end-product requirements.
As Marine Biologics continues to develop its MacroLink platform, product developers and teams will be able to query MacroLink using desired features and functionality – such as taste and mouth-feel – to identify and then contract for the optimal macroalgae crude or SuperCrude for their desired product.
“This changes the game for product developers because we can reproduce the same formulations consistently and at scale, year-round,” said Marine Biologics Chief Science Officer Spencer Serin. “We’ve eliminated the variance, waste and instability often associated with seaweed and other clean-label product ingredients. With our programmable biomass technology, Marine Biologics has redefined what’s possible for these manufacturers.”
Marine Biologics previously announced funding from the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation’s Joint Innovations Project for the extraction and analysis of the molecular composition of macroalgae from three Kodiak-based seaweed farms. In December of 2024, the company acquired Spoitz Enterprises, Canada’s foremost seaweed processing and testing firm, to expand its data analytics and macroalgae chemistry teams.
The Marine Biologics team and its SuperCrude solution for emulsification will be available at World AgriTech from March 11-12th and will present at Future Food-Tech from March 13-14th. Both events are in San Francisco, California.
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