Blue Marine Oil's story began with a match during the Biomanaging Day programme organised by the Galician Life Sciences Business Technology Cluster (Bioga) which is aimed at generating new contacts between biotech entrepreneurs and professionals with a management profile.

This is how Juan Fernández, a businessman, biologist and expert in the ozonisation of vegetable oils, and Tomás de la Calzada, a graduate in Law and Business with a long career in the management of biotechnological and scientific companies, met and made contact in a seven-minute meeting.

Tomás joined Juan's company as the company's innovation and business development manager and, soon after, he realised that the ozonisation technology for vegetable oils (in the process of patenting and differential because it allows for ingredients with great stability and bactericidal and antioxidant properties) was of great interest for use with marine oils.

“The aim is to contribute to solving two major challenges facing aquaculture: optimising the cost of feeding fish in the breeding and fattening process and reducing the risk of these fish contracting bacterial or microbial infections, thereby also reducing the use of antibiotics," explains Tomás de la Calzada. With this business idea, the two founded Blue Marine Oil in 2022.

Boosting Business Factory Food

Blue Marine Oil is participating in the acceleration phase of the 4th edition of the Business Factory Food, the Galician food sector accelerator promoted by the Xunta de Galicia and energised by the Food Cluster (Clusaga). Along with the economic boost it gives to the project, one of the main motivations that led them to submit their application was support from the driving companies. In fact, they have received mentoring from Nueva Pescanova, with whom they are working on a project to regenerate used oils for pre-cooked seafood products with the aim of converting them into soluble solutions to prevent or cure infections in turbot in the breeding process.

Furthermore, participation in the acceleration programme also prompted the company to look at how it can enhance its value proposition and positioning. "We wanted to get to the origin, to the discard and by-product of fishing and for that reason, we have positioned ourselves in silage technology. The aim is to develop high value-added products not only for aquaculture, but also for livestock, pet food or even for the food supplement sector. We also want to offer services to implement circular economy models for companies that generate these by-products or discards", explains Tomás de la Calzada.

Blue Marine Oil is currently closing agreements with various companies, both in Spain and in other countries, with the idea of having its first production plants up and running by the first half of 2023.