The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) has invested £2.5 million ($3.3 million) in MiAlgae, a University of Edinburgh spinout, to help build its commercial-scale factory for omega-3 made from whisky waste, Green Queen reports.
MiAlgae, founded in 2016, feeds microalgae on nutrient-rich by-products from whisky distilling in fermentation vessels. The algae are naturally rich in DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, and are processed into an ingredient sold to pet nutrition companies in dry, wet or supplement form, replacing DHA that usually comes from fish oil. The process returns the cleaned water to the watercourse.
The company broke ground on the plant in Grangemouth in late 2025, on the site of a Petroineos oil refinery that closed in April 2025 with nearly 430 job losses. The factory will produce more than ten times the company's current omega-3 output, recycle over 36 million litres of whisky by-products and is built to be modular, so more sites can be added near distilleries. MiAlgae expects to add 90 jobs, for a workforce of 156, by the end of 2028.
"By transforming whisky industry by-products into high-value Omega-3 ingredients, we are reducing pressure on marine ecosystems, preventing waste and creating a truly circular solution," said founder and chief executive Douglas Martin. Jane Reoch, the bank's executive director of innovation, called MiAlgae one of Scotland's most promising biotech companies.
The pressure on fish oil explains the interest. Green Queen cites the FAO's estimate that nearly 90 percent of world fish stocks are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted, and reports that fish oil supply in the main producing regions was running about 31 percent below a year earlier by early June, with El Niño expected to push prices higher. The new funding follows £3 million from the UK government nearly a year ago for the Grangemouth project.
Source: Green Queen
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