A closer look at Sargassum: SARGEX explores synchrotron approaches at ALBA
UAB researchers presented how advanced X-ray techniques could help reveal the composition of Sargassum biomass and guide its conversion into safe, valuable products.
SARGEX research featured at the VII ALBA Users’ Meeting on 3 September 2026, where Mercè Llugany Ollé, from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), presented the poster “Multimodal Synchrotron Approaches for the Sustainable Valorisation of Sargassum Biomass”.
Co-authored with Gustavo Pérez, also from UAB, the poster outlines an integrated analytical approach to understanding this complex marine resource and identifying suitable pathways for its sustainable use.
Understanding what lies within the biomass
Large accumulations of pelagic Sargassum create environmental and socio-economic pressures along Atlantic and Caribbean coastlines. Yet this biomass also contains compounds that could support the development of useful biobased products.
Making use of that potential requires a detailed understanding of its composition. Alongside valuable organic compounds and essential nutrients, Sargassum can contain potentially toxic elements. Their chemical forms, location within the biomass and behaviour during processing all matter when assessing safety and choosing appropriate applications.
Bringing complementary techniques together
The poster explores how synchrotron-based methods could help answer these questions. X-ray absorption spectroscopy can investigate the chemical forms and local environment of elements, while complementary mapping, diffraction and imaging techniques can reveal their distribution and the structural organisation of the material.
Combining these methods with chromatography, metabolomics and bioactivity studies could provide a more complete picture of Sargassum-derived materials. This knowledge would help researchers refine extraction processes, identify valuable compounds and assess changes during biomass processing.
Linking analytical capability with sustainable applications
The contribution also highlights the potential of ALBA II’s planned multimodal and multiscale capabilities, together with high-throughput workflows and AI-assisted data analysis, to support this research.
The approach builds on the researchers’ experience of using synchrotron techniques for elemental speciation in agro-food systems and proposes extending that expertise to marine biomass through SARGEX.
By connecting detailed chemical characterisation with safety assessment and process development, the work aims to support informed decisions about how Sargassum can contribute to a circular blue bioeconomy.
For more information:
Comments