Seaweed is organic and it can go bad like grain or other biomass. So it is crucial that processed seaweed can be stored throughout the year. Baling is a process that compresses material into a block (bale) which is secured by plastic or wire strapping.
Industrial-scale seaweed supply chain and operations require a way to store your product. There are many storage solutions, baling is one. Baling simplifies the transport and storage of the material.
We turned to Norwegian professional baling company Orkel. Their baling machines with high-density technology showed that sargassum is fully baleable, without any of the seaweed seeping out.
Watch Orkel's baler in action in the video below.
A world-first for sargassum and baling
We had another world-first: the first ever time sargassum was baled.
Sargassum overgrowth has become an alarming problem in the Caribbean, covering beaches, and limiting local coastal livelihoods and the marine ecosystem. Last week, we conducted baling tests in Finland using sargassum harvested from the Dominican Republic.
Conclusion: It bales. And it bales well.
There are several existing industrial-scale storage and logistic solutions for seaweed that we are looking into. The sargassum seaweed logistical chain is proving to be very scalable, especially with great partners like Orkel.