Microalgae Oil: An Alternative to Palm Oil?

Palm oil is everywhere. It shows up in half of all consumer products on store shelves. Yet its production carries a heavy environmental price tag: widespread deforestation, destruction of wildlife habitats, and the ongoing decline of species such as orangutans, pygmy elephants, and Sumatran rhinos. Now researchers believe a microscopic organism found in oceans and rivers could offer a cleaner alternative.

What the Research Found

A study published in the Journal of Applied Phycology examined oil extracted from microalgae — tiny photosynthesizing organisms that thrive in both salt and fresh water. Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore found that microalgae-derived oil contains more polyunsaturated fatty acids. 

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Why Palm Oil Is a Problem

The scale of global palm oil use is staggering. In 2018 alone, farmers produced 77 million tonnes of the commodity — a figure projected to climb to 107.6 million tonnes by 2024. Despite growing awareness of its environmental consequences, demand has continued to rise, driven by its low cost, high yield per hectare, and versatility as an ingredient.

Palm oil cultivation is one of the leading drivers of tropical deforestation, particularly across Southeast Asia. Clearing land for plantations destroys irreplaceable ecosystems and pushes endangered species closer to extinction. The IUCN Red List documents the direct link between palm oil expansion and biodiversity loss in these regions.

Efforts to address the issue through certification have had mixed results. The UK government pledged in 2012 to source 100% of its palm oil from sustainable suppliers. Yet by 2019, only 70% of total UK palm oil imports met that standard, according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Why Microalgae Could Work

Unlike palm trees, microalgae can be cultivated in controlled aquatic environments with minimal land use. The organisms are naturally regenerative, widely distributed, and their harvesting causes little disruption to surrounding ecosystems. These qualities make scaling microalgae production far less ecologically damaging than expanding palm plantations.

Beyond sustainability, the oil's fatty acid composition gives it a potential edge in food applications where healthier fat profiles are increasingly in demand. As consumers and regulators push for cleaner ingredient lists, microalgae oil could fit neatly into reformulation strategies for food manufacturers.

NTU's Broader Food Innovation Agenda

The microalgae research is part of a wider push at NTU to develop sustainable food technologies. In June 2021, the university launched a new undergraduate course dedicated to meat alternatives, developed in partnership with the Good Food Institute Asia Pacific, the first program of its kind in Southeast Asia. 

The microalgae oil study fits squarely within that mission: finding science-backed ways to reduce the food system's environmental footprint without sacrificing nutritional quality.

Whether microalgae oil can realistically scale to compete with palm oil on cost and volume remains an open question. But the NTU findings add meaningful weight to the argument that the food industry has viable, better alternatives worth pursuing.