Back in the mid-2010s, Dr. Scott Fulbright and Dr. Stevan Albers, Ph.D. students in the Cell and Molecular Biology Program at Colorado State University, had the intriguing idea of taking biofabrication, the use of biology to grow materials, and using it for everyday products. Fulbright was standing in a greeting card aisle when the idea of formulating inks from algae came to mind.

Most inks are petrochemical-based, but using algae, a sustainable technology, to replace petroleum-derived products, would create a negative carbon footprint. Albers was able to take algae cells and turn them into a pigment, which they made into a basic screenprinting ink formulation which could be printed.

Fulbright and Albers formed Living Ink, a biomaterials company located in Aurora, CO, which has commercialized environmentally friendly black algae-based pigmented inks. Fulbright serves as Living Ink’s CEO, with Albers as the CTO.

Living Ink uses sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to grow its own algae cells at large scale. Once the crude pigment is purified using proprietary technology, it is milled and formed into a dispersion, which then can be formulated into a variety of products, including inks. Algae inks can be printed on corrugated, paper, Tyvek, plastics, fabrics and leathers, among other substrates.

In 2019, Living Ink received grant funding from the National Science Foundation to develop prototypes of sustainable ink and pigments, and acquired lab space to develop biotechnology and minimal viable products at very small scale. Fulbright said it has been three years of exciting opportunities and challenges.

“By 2020 we secured an industrial space and built out a pilot plant to produce pigments and an ink,” Fulbright said. “During this time, we started working with strategic printers such as Ecoenclose and brands such as Patagonia. In 2021, we raised a seed round of private investment and are now located in a well-utilized 6000 square foot pilot plant where we can produce meaningful volumes of ink, about 600kg per day. During this time we have regularly shipped pallets of ink for a variety of industries, including apparel, footwear, packaging and beyond.”

Fulbright noted that Living Ink has built out a well-rounded team that has technical expertise in pigments and ink.

“In 2022 we recruited our COO, as he has significant experience in manufacturing at companies such as Newell Brands, Armstrong Flooring and Chromadex,” he said. “This March we will be bringing on a veteran in the ink and coatings industry to strengthen our technical know-how and technical sales. We are very excited about this new team member joining. We have assembled a robust and reliable production team that produces every week.”

In 2022, Living Ink launched screen ink products with Nike, Marmot and American Eagle within the apparel industry, and more companies are lining up to work with them.

“Beyond apparel, we continue to do boxes, mailers and hang tags for a variety of companies including Patagonia,” Fulbright said. “In 2023, we will continue to build out the team to manufacture more products and navigate global supply chains in a variety of verticals. We are excited to continue to evolve into a true chemical manufacturing company working with some of the biggest brands and printers in the world.”

Apparel and packaging aren’t the only opportunities for Living Ink.

“This year we will be launching products in the leather industry and footwear industry as well as some energy curable products for packaging and beyond,” Fulbright said. “Beyond ink applications, we have explored dying different apparel fibers such as natural and synthetic fibers. Much of the focus at Living Ink is building strong partnerships with brands and printing partners focused on innovation and sustainability. We have completed a third-party carbon life-cycle analysis, accepted claims on numerous patents and robust suppliers to scale pigment and ink production.”

The sustainability message that Living Ink offers is truly impressive. For every kg of pigment Living Ink produces, there is -4.16kg of CO2 footprint. A ton of Algae Ink is equivalent to removing over 3.5 million balloons of CO2 from the environment. In comparison, a ton of carbon black ink is equivalent to releasing over 8 million balloons full of pure CO2.

“Thus, we sequester more CO2 than we produce during the processing,” Fulbright pointed out. “The algae pigment is renewable as sunlight is used to grow the algae. The Living Ink pigment has no issues when it comes to heavy metals and other impurities such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Thus, we have a safety story for some customers. We are continuing to streamline the process and improve this metric.”

“At Living Ink, we educate and often bring up the idea of using ink to tell a novel sustainability story,” said Fulbright. “Many brands have not thought of incorporating pigments and inks into this larger sustainability story. We see Algae Ink as an inexpensive, low-hanging opportunity to tell a unique story and differentiate from competitors.”

Ink companies have certainly taken notice. “There have been several ink companies interested in making Living Ink go bigger, faster,” Fulbright said.

While Living Ink has its black inks down, colors are still in development.

“We are exploring colors with a few brand partners for the right applications,” Fulbright noted. “Our goal is to drive revenue with the black ink products and then bring color into the picture. We are excited about black because we check all the boxes related to color, pH resistance, temperature resistance and most importantly UV light resistance. The colors are fun to work on and we do see huge opportunities.”

Living Ink has come a long way in the last few years.

“In 2020, no one had heard of Algae Ink,” Fulbright recalled. “Ecoenclose, a Colorado-based printer, was our only real customer. Now we get incoming emails and have kicked off numerous projects with the big players in the industry. There is a long list of on-going projects with consumer electronics, industrial goods, consumer food and beverage, apparel and footwear. We now have a distributor in China and are looking for other global partners to expand. I am excited about the launches that are coming in 2023 and 2024.”