{"id":252104,"date":"2026-09-01T07:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=252104"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:40:50","slug":"trading-in-palm-trees-for-seaweed-to-support-domestic-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/09\/trading-in-palm-trees-for-seaweed-to-support-domestic-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading in Palm Trees for Seaweed to Support Domestic Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palm oil and palm kernel oil are versatile oleochemical feedstocks widely used in food and personal care products and can be converted into industrial products such as biolubricants and bio-based plasticizers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Despite its ubiquity, though, there are serious problems with palm oil. Palm oil production has led to deforestation and biodiversity loss, as well as unjust labor practices in Southeast Asia, where the majority of the world\u2019s palm oil supply is produced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Because it is derived from a tropical plant, the United States currently relies on imports to meet 100% of its demand for this critical platform chemical\u00a0across the food, cosmetics, industrial lubricants, and plasticizer sectors creating significant supply chain vulnerabilities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mingyu Qiao, assistant professor of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Department of Nutritional Sciences (<\/span>CAHNR<\/span><\/a>), has received a $1.875 million grant from the Department of Energy\u2019s Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office to turn seaweed into a replacement for palm oil and other medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) like coconut oil.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Seaweed farming has already established a foothold in Connecticut and New England as a sustainable and easy-to-grow crop.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only doesn’t seaweed consume fertilizers, water, or pesticides, as other crops do, but it also acts as a natural filter to clean the water in which it grows. Seaweed can be produced rapidly and on a large scale without competing for space with land-based crops.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith seaweed, you can just put it in the ocean, and it\u2019ll grow itself,\u201d Qiao says. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to apply any pesticides or fertilizers because the ocean has all the nutrients it needs.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Qiao is using sugar kelp, a popular edible seaweed that is native to and already produced in Connecticut\u2019s waters, for his research.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Mingyu Qiao poses for a photo in his office in the Advanced Technology Laboratory (ATL). (Jason Sheldon\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Qiao is using a biological process known as arrested anaerobic digestion to transform seaweed into MCFAs. Anaerobic digestion is a natural process through which bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally this process produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. However, the natural salinity of seaweed inhibits methane-producing microorganisms, redirecting the process toward volatile fatty acid production. These acids can then be separated and upgraded into medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), creating a more sustainable pathway.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This project is a collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory, the recipient of $200,000 of the grant. The Laboratory will develop a method for preserving seaweed biomass long enough for it to be processed. Normally, seaweed rots within a few days of being out of the water. By adding lactic acid bacteria \u2013 the same bacteria found in yogurt \u2013 the researchers can stabilize and store the seaweed for months.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the biggest problem for seaweed compared with something like corn or soybeans,\u201d Qiao says. \u201cThis will solve that problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because the MCFAs Qiao\u2019s team will produce are derived from seaweed, they can be used in all industries, like food and personal care, that require additives to be all-natural.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor anything that comes into contact with the body, consumers increasingly prefer natural or bio-based materials because petroleum-derived products may contain trace impurities, some of which could pose toxicological or carcinogenic risks,\u201d Qiao says. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This work will help support the U.S.\u2019s supply chain resilience of critical chemicals and materials. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor critical materials, [it’s important to be able to] produce them domestically,\u201d Qiao says. \u201cEven if it\u2019s a little bit more expensive, those companies are willing to pay for that because it\u2019s more secure. You can fully control that.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This project is a collaboration between researchers in the <\/span><\/i>College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources<\/span><\/i><\/a> and the <\/span><\/i>College of Engineering<\/span><\/i><\/a> with co-PIs Baikun Li, professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Jeffrey McCutcheon and Xiao-Dong Zhou, professors, and Burcu Beykal, assistant professor, in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering; and Bradley Wahlen, research scientist at Idaho National Laboratory. All UConn faculty are part of the <\/span><\/i>Center for Clean Energy Engineering<\/span><\/i><\/a> (C2E2).<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mingyu Qiao will use an anaerobic digestion process to transform seaweed into a sustainable replacement for palm oil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":252134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,2460,2301,2076,2709,2387,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2277],"class_list":["post-252104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-faculty","category-nutritional-sciences","category-research","category-security","category-sustainability","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-08 10:04:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252104"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252352,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252104\/revisions\/252352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/252134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252104"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=252104"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=252104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}