Green fish oil from blue industry

Green fish oil from blue industry

The tuna canning industry of the Azores occupies a prominent position in the exportations of the archipelago. The development of the sector and the increase in production implies more waste which, if not properly treated or reused, dramatically enhances the pressure and risk of environmental impact on the Ocean.

The project Green fish oil from blue industry aims to demonstrate and implement new technologies, with a high degree of technological maturity, that enable the innovative production of fish oil derived from the exclusive production of tuna of the species Katsuwonus pelamis, aka stripe-bellied bonito or skipjack tuna.

Without the reuse of this by-product of animal origin and, with the increase in production, there has been a high pressure on the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP), resulting in an effluent that requires much more material resources (addition of substances/ compounds) and time to become an effluent that can be discharged. In this context, the project aims to acquire the physical resources (namely a decanter and a centrifuge for the production of refined and marketable fish oil) and technical resources (through the establishment of partnerships with researchers specialized in the nutritional characterization and valorization of this product) necessary for the industrial production of fish oil, in parallel with the fish flour production process, both produced from by-products of the tuna canning industry in the Azores.