An algae oil softgel does not reveal much about where it came from. Behind that capsule is typically one of a small number of large, highly specialized facilities, some of which look nothing like the sunny outdoor ponds people tend to picture when they hear the word “algae farm.” A few of the largest operations in the world use enormous dark fermentation tanks instead, growing algae without sunlight at all. This article takes a closer look at three of the facilities behind the modern algae oil supply, each built around a different production approach.
A Fermentation Plant in the Middle of Nebraska
Veramaris, a joint venture between DSM and Evonik, operates a production facility in Blair, Nebraska, representing a 200 million dollar investment in a production method that has little visual resemblance to farming in any traditional sense. The facility sits inland, far from any ocean, which makes sense once you understand how the algae inside it actually grows.
Growing Algae Without Sunlight
The strain of algae used at the Blair facility, Schizochytrium, is heterotrophic, meaning it does not rely on photosynthesis or sunlight to grow. Instead, it is fed a sugar-based substrate inside large fermentation vessels, similar in concept to the fermentation process used in brewing, and the cells accumulate oil rich in EPA and DHA as they multiply through progressively larger tanks.
A Waste-Free Process
One notable feature of the Blair facility is that its production process is designed to leave no waste stream. The primary byproduct of extracting the algal oil is fed entirely to cattle, closing the loop on a process that would otherwise generate significant leftover biomass. At full capacity, the facility was designed to meet a meaningful share of the total global demand for EPA and DHA from the salmon aquaculture industry, illustrating how a single inland facility can now supply omega-3 fatty acids at a scale that once required an entire ocean fishing fleet.
A Sugar Cane Facility in Brazil
Corbion operates a similarly fermentation-based facility in Brazil, deliberately located next to a sugar cane mill so that sugar cane, one of the most productive sugar crops in the world, can be used directly as feedstock for the algae fermentation process without long transport distances.
Why Location Matters for a Fermentation Facility
Positioning the facility next to its feedstock source is a practical choice that reduces transportation costs and emissions associated with moving raw sugar to the plant. This kind of site selection reflects how fermentation-based algae oil production has more in common with an industrial biotechnology plant than a conventional farm, since feedstock logistics matter as much as biology in determining where a facility gets built.
A Documented Sustainability Comparison
Corbion has published a life cycle assessment for its AlgaPrime DHA product line, peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the journal Algal Research, comparing the carbon footprint of its fermentation-based algae oil to traditional fish oil sourcing. This kind of published, third-party-reviewed comparison is relatively uncommon in the industry and reflects a growing expectation that sustainability claims tied to algae oil production be backed by actual data rather than general marketing language.
Open Ponds and Photobioreactors in Hawaii
Not every large algae operation relies on fermentation. Cellana, based in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii, grows algae using sunlight, employing a combination of open ponds and enclosed photobioreactors across a large coastal facility.
Why This Location Was Chosen
The facility sits on land managed by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, a site originally built to support ocean thermal energy research, which continues to pipe in a constant supply of fresh, cold seawater from deep offshore. This existing infrastructure gives algae cultivation facilities in the area consistent access to clean seawater alongside Hawaii’s reliable year-round sunlight, two resources that are difficult to combine anywhere else at this scale.
A Different Kind of Scale
Unlike the enclosed, weather-independent fermentation tanks used in Nebraska and Brazil, photosynthetic cultivation depends directly on sunlight and climate, which is why this production model has concentrated in a small number of consistently sunny, coastal locations rather than spreading more broadly. The tradeoff is a process that does not require a sugar feedstock at all, relying instead on sunlight as its primary energy input.
What Running a Facility Like This Actually Involves
Regardless of which production method a facility uses, operating at this scale requires constant monitoring that goes well beyond simply keeping algae alive.
Contamination Control
Whether algae is growing in a sealed fermentation tank or an open pond, keeping out unwanted competing microorganisms is a constant operational concern. A single contamination event in a large fermentation vessel or pond can compromise an entire batch, which is why these facilities invest heavily in sterile handling procedures and continuous water or substrate quality monitoring.
Harvesting and Extraction at Scale
Once algae cells have accumulated enough oil, the biomass has to be harvested and processed to separate the oil from the cellular material, a step that has to happen efficiently across tons of biomass daily at a large facility without degrading the oil’s freshness. The engineering behind this harvesting and extraction step is a significant part of what separates a facility that can operate profitably at commercial scale from one that only works at a small pilot scale.
Three Different Paths to the Same Ingredient
These three facilities, an inland fermentation plant in Nebraska, a sugar cane-fed operation in Brazil, and a sun-powered coastal facility in Hawaii, all ultimately produce the same class of ingredient: concentrated DHA and EPA suitable for aquaculture feed or human supplements. The differences in how each facility gets there reflect genuine engineering tradeoffs between feedstock cost, climate dependence, and land requirements, rather than one clearly superior approach.
What This Means for the Product You Buy
An algae-based omega-3 supplement on a store shelf rarely discloses which of these production models supplied its oil, but understanding that there are fundamentally different ways to grow the same algae helps explain why sourcing and manufacturing claims can vary so much between brands, and why questions about sustainability or scale do not have a single, universal answer across the entire algae oil industry.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Algae Oil Always Come from Sunny Outdoor Farms?
No. Some of the largest algae oil producers, including Veramaris in Nebraska and Corbion in Brazil, grow algae in dark fermentation tanks using a sugar-based feedstock rather than relying on sunlight at all.
How Does the Veramaris Facility in Nebraska Grow Algae Without Sunlight?
It uses a heterotrophic algae strain called Schizochytrium, which is fed a sugar-based substrate in large fermentation vessels and accumulates EPA and DHA-rich oil as it grows, similar in concept to a brewing fermentation process.
Why Is a Major Algae Oil Facility Located in Brazil?
Corbion’s Brazilian facility is positioned next to a sugar cane mill specifically to use sugar cane as feedstock for its fermentation process without long transport distances, reducing both cost and emissions associated with moving raw materials.
What Makes Hawaii a Common Location for Algae Cultivation?
Hawaii offers consistent year-round sunlight combined with access to clean, cold deep seawater through existing infrastructure originally built for ocean thermal energy research, a combination that is difficult to replicate at scale elsewhere.
Do All Algae Oil Producers Use the Same Production Method?
No. Some, like Veramaris and Corbion, use fermentation-based production without sunlight, while others, like Cellana, use photosynthetic cultivation in open ponds and photobioreactors, and both approaches are used at meaningful commercial scale today.
