From a marine problem to a regenerative innovation: COSSMA

As the request for renewable resources increases, many wonder how we will face the challenge of meeting the higher demand without causing additional deforestation or loss of biodiversity. An option from the sea promises to be sustainable in many ways, as Dr Barbara Olioso knows.

Palm kernel oil is a very efficient source of renewable commodities and there are great initiatives to make palm plantations more sustainable to address its association with deforestation and loss of biodiversity. However, the recent export ban of palm oil in Indonesia, the number one supplier in the world of palm1, is putting extra pressure on supply chains and cost, on palm oil and palm kernel oil derivatives. Even if only temporary, the export ban is showing the critical dependence on palm oil, inspiring alternative supply chains and even new biomasses all together.

So, what else is out there that could be considered by the industry?

From the sea

A new solution to address the supply and biodiversity challenges could come from the oceans rather than a plantation. In fact, the majority of the earth’s crust, i.e. 71%2 happens to be covered by water, with a 96.5% of the 71% being oceans, making the total earth surface covered by oceans a staggering 68.5%!

There are already quite a few ingredients tapping into the ocean’s bounty such as rheology modifiers and actives derived from a great variety of seaweeds sourced in a sustainable way. However, there is a very interesting innovation that could expand the formulator’s pallet with new functional seaweed derivatives aligning with consumers values, giving elegant textures and unique environmental claims with a powerful impact.

Big marine problem

Back in 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his sailors, while sailing on the Santa Maria, bumped into a gigantic mass of floating brown seaweeds, a Sargasso Sea i.e. sargassum seaweeds. This floating “forest” is still there in the temperate North Atlantic, providing a wild habitat for many marine species despite being far away from the coast.

It is believed it gets its nutrients to support its growth from nutrient rich coastal waters via the Gulf stream, one of the many gyrating streams keeping it in place. But changing currents have created a separate sargassum region in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean, south of the Sargasso Sea.

Because of the increase of farming and the use of fertilisers in South America and their consequent release into the oceans³, this new Atlantic sargassum belt has grown exponentially in the last decade or so. The excessive growth ends up accumulating on beaches and shores with quite an impact by clogging coral reefs and sea turtle nesting grounds and the atmosphere as it decomposes, releasing methane and hydrogen sulphide.

Even if not as renowned as carbon dioxide, methane still contributes to global warming in a significant way as discussed at the COP26 in Glasgow⁴. This is because methane has a higher capacity for solar absorption, making it 28 times stronger than CO2.

The hydrogen sulphide has a characteristic smell of rotten eggs spoiling the atmosphere at holiday resorts in Mexico and most of the nearby tourist destinations such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic.

On top of methane and hydrogen sulphide emissions, sargassum seaweed also has the ability of absorbing arsenic, meaning once it decomposes on the shore arsenic can accumulate over time⁵.

Regenerative innovation

To tackle this environmental challenge and find a way to prevent this biomass turning into harmful gases and spoiling the shores habitat, a public benefit corporation6 has come up with the idea of taking this biomass and transforming it into something useful. Via a unique and proprietary green chemistry cold extraction process, an extract with oil in water emulsifying properties is produced.

Other interesting applications are in the pipeline, such as vegan leather, but cosmetics is the first application this team has experimented with.

This extract⁷ is available in a paste form and works in cold as well as hot processes in a pH range of 3.5 to 9. Use levels are 3 to 6% and it can emulsify a wide range of oils between 10 to 40% giving fluid white or off-white emulsions with a nice silky texture. It has a new INCI name (Sargassum Fluitans/Natans extract) reflecting the use of the two different sargassum species used to make the extract.

This material has also just been Cosmos approved and validated to be without animal origin by Ecocert Greenlife. Given the issues with heavy metals absorption, every batch is screened for arsenic level content to ensure safety compliance. Other metals screened on a spot testing basis are cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, molybdenum, and selenium.

To validate the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and sustainability benefits associated with the sargassum repurposing, the production process has been evaluated by a third party, using a new methodology developed by the gold standard based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The assessment showed great performance in relation to SDG 13 (climate action) as each tonne of sargassum prevented from breaking down saves 0.5 tonnes equivalent of CO2, SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) thanks to the prevention of Hydrogen Sulphide release and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) because of the creation of a new economy and jobs for the locals that lost jobs to tourism.

Conclusions

The pandemic is close to the end, yet its impact on consumers values, supply chains and the way we use natural resources has had a lasting disruptive impact. There is a greater need and opportunity to create new cosmetic ingredients and products meeting these stronger values, without compromising on performance.

Repurposed sargassum extract not only meets all these new values, but also has the additional regenerative potential for marine life and the local economy, also saving other earth resources and reducing waste in general. And most likely with a more reliable supply chain than palm.