Sargassum as Resource: circular economy, valorisation, and value chains

Dr Susana Enríquez is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology (ICML) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She works at the Reef Systems Academic Unit in Puerto Morelos, where she leads research on photobiology and carbon fluxes in coral reefs.
Her work examines how corals, seagrasses and macroalgae absorb and use light, photosynthesise and calcify. She also studies how they respond to warming, ocean acidification and nutrient enrichment.
She holds a PhD in Biological Sciences (marine ecology) from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She was a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen.

Loiza Rauzduel is Sargassum Value Chain Manager at Expertise France, based in Martinique. She works on Expertise France’s regional sargassum programme in the Caribbean. The programme aims to limit the impact of sargassum strandings and build a regional framework to manage the seaweed and turn it into useful products. Expertise France delivers this work with funding from the French Development Agency (AFD), including through the SARSEA project. SARSEA supports Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Her role focuses on finding ways to collect, process and use sargassum, so that a recurring environmental problem can become a source of local economic activity. She works with governments, researchers and the private sector across the region.

Dr. Mar Fernández Méndez is a Research Scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and Co-Founder, Chief Executive and Scientific Officer of MacroCarbon, a Spanish start-up based in the Canary Islands. She holds an MSc in Marine Microbiology and a PhD in Biological Oceanography.
She has worked at the Norwegian Polar Institute and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and now leads a research group at AWI focused on marine climate change impacts and solutions. Her expertise spans phytoplankton ecology, marine carbon dioxide removal, artificial upwelling systems, and carbon and nutrient biochemistry.
In 2023, she co-founded MacroCarbon to cultivate floating seaweeds, such as pelagic Sargassum, in the open ocean and convert them into sustainable hydrocarbons, biochar, and carbon black for long-term carbon sequestration. She has participated in research expeditions from the Arctic to the Tropics.

Valentín Fernández Barranco is a Naval Systems Engineer and holds a Master’s Degree in Naval and Ocean Engineering, specialising in marine power generation systems.
He currently serves as Head of the Technical Office at SYM Naval at the shipyard in Vilanova i la Geltrú, where he leads the technical execution of projects across the group’s shipyards. From this position, he coordinates engineering development in close collaboration with the R&D&I department, ensuring that each project meets the highest technical, operational, and efficiency standards.
His work focuses particularly on optimising solutions for port service vessels and specialised ships, with a clear emphasis on reducing environmental impact and improving operational performance. His technical profile and applied vision reinforce SYM Naval’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and industrial excellence.