Best practice guidelines for seaweed cultivation and analysis: Report WP1A5.01

This document is a compilation of Best Practice recommendations and considerations employed by theEnAlgae macroalgal pilot facilities. EnAlgae was a four-year Strategic Initiative of INTERREG IVB NorthWest Europe programme. As part of a key series of outputs, three macroalgae pilot sites were developed in the UK, Ireland and France to demonstrate algal cultivation techniques for bioenergy. This integrated network of pilot sites collaborated on method development and optimal pilot operation with respect to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs, separate document). These SOPs were combined and refined into a comprehensive overview of the Best Practices for Macroalgal Cultivation across a range of environmental conditions and species.

Best Practices (including recommendations and considerations) are presented for siting a pilot plant;macroalgae cultivation (including strain collection, preparation, maintenance and monitoring); macroalgae seeding, deployment, at-sea maintenance and monitoring and biomass harvesting. In addition, detailed technical descriptions of the different pilots and the infrastructure used in have been provided, along with key information on practices that were unsuccessful. The aim is to provide the information necessary for those new to pilot and commercial scale macroalgae cultivation, across a range of site conditions and resources available.