The gaps in this subsection reflect the challenges in attracting the mainstream capital needed for commercial-scale cultivation and processing needed for climate impact.
The current cost of seaweed biomass is too high to produce price-competitive critical mineral feedstock
Currently, the modeled minimum selling price for the “Alg-Ore” feedstock exceeds the value of the minerals contained within it, even before purification costs are included. Achieving profitability depends heavily on reducing operational costs and maximizing co-product value.
The early stage of technological development and high market risk reduce appeal to investors
Investments in seaweed-based technologies are currently limited to a narrow set of specialty investors. More mainstream investors will be needed to address the high capital costs of setting up seaweed cultivation and processing facilities.
Seaweed cultivation infrastructure needs to be scaled up significantly to become relevant to the global critical mineral value market
Current production volumes, especially outside Asia, are low, and existing supply is largely destined for traditional, higher-value markets like food and hydrocolloids (The World Bank Group, Global Seaweed New and Emerging Markets Report, 2023). Generating the large supply needed for production requires substantial scaling of volumes and a significant reduction of production costs.