Blue Forest for Norrbotten: Valorization of aquatic biomass and Governance Frameworks for Sustainable Deployment

The project treats aquatic biomass as a Swedish natural resource and advances sustainability by coupling nutrient removal and ecosystem-service recovery with circular valorisation (AD/HTC, enzymatic hydrolysis) to support an industrial transition toward a fossil-free society in Norrbotten.

Supervisor: Paul Christakopoulos, Professor and Head of Subject Biochemical Process Engineering, SBN

Subject description

Biochemical Process Engineering is about developing environmentally friendly technologies that optimise how renewable, fossil-based carbon reserves can be used. The emphasis is on keeping carbon atoms in the loop for a circular and sustainable society.

Co-supervisor: Maria Pettersson, Professor and Head of Subject Law, ETKS

Project description

The PhD project aims to valorise available aquatic biomass—cultivated indigenous algae and harvested invasive aquatic plants—rather than expand forest or arable harvesting. The proposed strategy facilitates the socio-technical transition to a more sustainable society as it helps exterminate and exploit a species destined for removal, while avoiding spatial conflicts in coastal waters through on-land cultivation of indigenous species. Furthermore, to highlight the potential of by-products, the PhD project will seek to valorise biomass by integrating additional side streams, such as CO2 from local industrial emitters. SSAB Luleå, along with pulp and paper industries (Billerud Karlsborg, Piteå mills) emit fossil and biogenic CO2. A practice consisting of cooling, filtration, mild scrubbing, and pH-controlled (7.4–7.8) injection of CO2 has already been established for algal systems. LTU Biochemical Process Engineering (LTU-BPE) operates capture/utilisation facilities and maintains CO2 capture/conditioning infrastructure, de-risking logistics and ensuring feasibility of the proposed CO2 injection.

The PhD project aims to facilitate the socio-technical transition in the High North by proposing a scientific and regulatory pathway for the valorisation of aquatic biomass in biorefinery systems that exploit CO2/pH control and pretreatment/enzymes for substrate upcycling.