Omega-3 is a high-value nutritional ingredient with established markets in human nutrition, aquaculture and pet food. Microalgae offer a potential route to produce these valuable fatty acids while reducing dependence on marine-derived supply.

Long before ‘fish oil’ became a wellness buzzword, our forefathers used to get it by the spoonful, in cod liver oil—whether they liked it or not!

That’s right: cod liver oil was a traditional source of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the form of omega-3 fats, particularly EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid)—although people historically took it for several reasons, including its vitamin A and vitamin D content. (And maybe to torture children, but we can’t be sure.)

But most people have got out the habit—and instead look to get those long-chain Omega-3 fatty acids in expensive tablet or bottle form.

Though most people know omega-3 isn’t just ‘fish oil’ but is instead a family of fats involved in some very important jobs throughout the body, the point is this is something your body needs, but it can’t make enough of.

With established applications across human nutrition, dietary supplements, aquaculture, pet food and other animal-nutrition markets, consumer demand has made global finished EPA+DHA consumer product a hefty $55.4bn in 2025, up 2.5% year on year.

That means the omega-3 ingredient market is in good shape, too, with 84% deriving from marine sources (2025 estimates). But we humans are far from the only consumers of the stuff.

EPA and DHA are also essential components of many aquafeed formulations, so aquaculture is an obvious market, but pet food companies also like the idea of selling more nutritious products.

What’s also interesting in all this, is that omega-3 is a premium ingredient, not a commodity. Which begs the question: if we could grow it from captured CO₂, could it return us a higher yield than applications where the CCU (carbon capture and utilisation) output is sold at relatively low prices per tonne?

At least some existing or potential CCU ecosystem players agree—and are starting to put plans in place for commercialisation of that idea, and at scale.

The idea here is to use captured CO₂, light and the correct nutrients to generate enough microalgal biomass to output high-value EPA/DHA omega-3 ingredients, combining the carbon utilisation you want to do as part of your ESG commitments with a premium product whose value can absorb the cost of cultivation and downstream processing.

A useful addition to established supply chains

The gap in the market here is to supplement—not replace—the 1.2 million tonnes of fish oil we produce as a planet every year. A big consideration for the supply chain here is volatility, with the IFFO (the international trade organisation representing the marine-ingredients industry, particularly fishmeal and fish oil) reporting that global fish oil output in the first seven months of 2026 was 30% below the corresponding period of 2025, largely reflecting weaker production in Peru and Chile.

In other words, creating an additional Omega-3 supply decoupled from marine biomass availability and fishing cycles could be of great interest in that $55 billion market. Interestingly, a microalgae route to that makes a lot of sense, as algae can provide the desired long-chain Omega-3 directly (see here, for instance).

In addition, compared with marine-derived Omega-3, a CCU-microalgae ‘production line’ could offer controlled production conditions, consistent fatty-acid profiles, zero dependence on fishing season timelines, no marine contaminants associated with fish-derived raw materials, and much more.

It has to be said that a CCU route would be a new departure: as it stands, the largest commercial Omega-3 algae operations are heterotrophic/fermentation-based, rather than photoautotrophic systems directly fixing industrial CO₂, using things like cane sugar.

However, that presents another incentive, as CCU plans may not have included this potentially very rich destination—and so, by investing in omega-3 alternatives before demand for algae-based products took off, you gain first-mover advantage.

A route for converting your industrial CO₂ into a premium, globally traded nutritional ingredient

And, to remind you, you’d be producing a premium product: in 2025, algal Omega-3 oil was selling at $80–160 per kilo, while downstream processing can represent 50–60% of total microalgae production costs in some existing biorefinery configurations.

That matters, as conventional CO₂ utilisation technologies attempt to turn CO₂ into very useful things we absolutely want, like biofuels and commodity materials, but which do tend to have relatively low €/tonne product economics, while a process like ours instead could give you and your brand a more high-value biochemical product.

Translation: rather than selling lots of relatively cheap algae biomass, instead, because the resulting product can command a much higher price per tonne, why not use the algae as a production platform for concentrated EPA/DHA?

Which we help clients like you do every day. So, if you think opening a route for converting your industrial CO₂ into a premium, globally traded nutritional ingredient while simultaneously reducing dependence on marine resources—let’s talk, and see what we can do for you.