Sargassum Biorefinery (SaBRe) Center Funded by Schmidt Foundation

Exciting news as we receive funding to kickoff the Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF). The VIFF initiative is funded by Schmidt Sciences and Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research. Read more about the broader VIFF mission here (https://lnkd.in/eVC8Yyq5).

In particular, Dr. Chundawat looks forward to the establishment of the VIFF sponsored center called Sargassum BioRefinery (or SaBRe), led by Jose L Avalos and co-led by Loretta Roberson and Dr. Chundawat, along with several colleagues from multiple research institutions and one company. We aim to develop Sargassum seaweed biorefinery processes that integrates various conversion technologies to produce a diverse array of products. Our highly interdisciplinary team includes researchers from Princeton University (Jose L Avalos), Rutgers University (Shishir P S Chundawat, Debashish Bhattacharya, Sagar Khare), Marine Biological Laboratory (Loretta Roberson), University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (Dr. Clifford Jaylen Louime), UCLA (Ah-Hyung (Alissa) Park, Aaron Moment), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Hauke Kite-Powell), Berkeley Lab (Yasuo Yoshikuni), CINVESTAV (Daniel Robledo), and Carbonwave (Allen McGonagill).

Briefly, Sargassum is native to the historical ‘Sargasso Sea’ and gives rise annually to the largest macroalgae bloom in the world! The buildup of Sargassum biomass, also called ‘The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt’ in the Atlantic Ocean, has raised serious concerns in the last decade for communities living around the Sargasso sea. More details about the Sargassum challenge and how our SaBRe team will make seaweeds like Sargassum into a sustainable feedstock of the future is available in our recent press release (https://lnkd.in/exz4ps2Q). Keep posted for the new SaBRe center website, to be launched soon, for additional details as we begin to train the next-generation of scientists and engineers to kickoff exciting research in our center to make Sargassum Biorefining a reality!

Special thanks to Genevieve Croft, PhD, Schmidt Sciences, Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, and the VIFF advisory team for their vision and support for complex climate and renewable feedstocks relevant research initiatives to ultimately develop a more sustainable and circular bioeconomy.

Check out links below for details from Schmidt Foundation and Princeton/Rutgers. Exciting work to kickstart work on this project!

https://www.schmidtsciences.org/viff/
https://www.schmidtsciences.org/five-projects-receive-funding-to-advance-the-circular-bioeconomy-with-biomass-feedstocks/
https://soe.rutgers.edu/news/transforming-troublesome-seaweed-feedstock-future
https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2024/07/17/transforming-troublesome-seaweed-feedstock-future