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Living Ink Makes Black Pigment Out of Algae
John Himes
September 23, 2024
Did you know that most black ink comes from fossil fuels? Living Ink is changing that by creating sustainable black pigments and inks out of algae that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
From their facility in Berthoud, Colorado—a small town 27 miles north of Boulder—Living Ink is innovating a sustainable biomaterial that’s set to displace carbon black, the status quo in black pigment.
Instead of partially burning petroleum, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and then collecting the residue, Living Ink’s new method of creating black pigment is actually carbon negative.
While the production of 1 kg of petrol-based carbon black releases 2 kg of CO2 into the air, an equivalent amount of Living Ink’s algae-based pigment actually eliminates 2 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere by preventing the methane emissions these bio materials would produce decomposing in a landfill. That’s on top of displacing the petroleum.
This biotechnology is already attracting celebrities and brands who share the same values. In 2023, Billie Eilish collaborated with Nike on a sneaker design that used black pigment from Living Ink (pictured above). Now, Living Ink is getting picked up by sustainability-focused brands like Patagonia and New Balance.
“Colorado’s been an amazing place to grow because of the eco-friendly focused environment,” says Dr. Stevan Albers, CTO and cofounder at Living Ink. “That’s been important for us because it’s who we are.”
How Living Ink turns spent biomass into sustainable black ink
Living Ink’s tech transforms biomass into black pigment, a fine black powder they can liquefy into ink. That ink then replaces carbon black–based inks for packaging, rubber, plastics, and more.
Black is a special color, and not just because it never goes out of style. “Black takes UV light and dissipates it into heat,” explains Dr. Albers. “That’s why everything from tires to outdoor pipes are always black. It protects them from being broken down in the sunlight.”
Look around you: it’s not hard to spot something that’s dyed black. That’s why black pigment is a $91B market.
So how does Living Ink turn spent blue algae and other waste bio materials into black pigment?
It starts with their patented process, which Dr. Albers likens to putting a “candy coating like the top of a creme brulee” over the algae particles. This salt coating has a melting point of around 15,000 degrees Celsius, allowing it to stay solid—and protect the algae inside—during the next step.
That next step is cooking the salt-coated algae in a special oven that’s devoid of oxygen. During this pyrolysis, the algae turns into black char. This is also where the coating comes into play: instead of the algae all melting together into a chunk of useless slag, each individual particle chars on its own, resulting in a fine dust.
The coating also influences the geometry of the charred particle’s surface, which is another reason it ends up so intensely black. The surface becomes porous, similar to a golf ball, meaning that when light goes in, it can never leave. Since it absorbs light instead of reflecting it, the material appears black.
The final step is cleaning out some of the minerals. Then the black pigment is ready to go. From there, it’s a matter of using chemistry and machinery to turn the powdered pigment into liquid ink that’s ready for the printer.
Organic growth of a tech startup
Living Ink now has ten full-time employees and five products in their lineup. They’re scaling up production and making deals with large brands. They were even recently featured in Vogue Business.
But like pretty much every startup, the journey to get to this point wasn’t exactly linear.
While they were finishing up their PhDs at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Dr. Albers and his cofounder, Dr. Scott Fullbright, the company’s chief executive, started experimenting with algae in the backyard. They were driven by a shared commitment to sustainability.
Although their original idea was to pursue biofuels, their first invention was Growing Greeting Cards, which were like chia pets but in card form. The receiver would put their card in the window and watch it grow; a few days later, a blank piece of paper would turn into a colorful display.
They started getting traction after a 2016 Kickstarter, but they didn’t feel like they were making a real difference for the environment. “We started asking ourselves, how do we really make an impact?” says Dr. Albers.
That’s when they decided to make the transition to the carbon-negative ink business. They spent the next few years developing the biotech, and in 2021 they left their jobs to become full-time entrepreneurs.
As they continue to take on bigger and bigger projects—from shoes with Nike to hang tags with Patagonia—one of the biggest hurdles has been scaling manufacturing. “Making one kilogram of pigment is no problem, but making 1,000 kg is when it starts to get really challenging,” explains Dr. Albers.
They’ve had to demonstrate consistency and performance while simultaneously working to lower costs to be competitive in the market. They understand that, in order to truly displace petrol-based carbon black pigment, they need to offer more than just sustainability benefits.
They need to compete on price, quality, and reliability. Luckily, there is one big thing working in their favor: the raw materials they need, the algae and other waste biomass, doesn’t exactly demand a premium. By acquiring the algae at a low price and then optimizing their operations, they’re creating products that can go head-to-head with carbon black.
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Colorado is the best place to build an eco-friendly biomaterials technology business
It’s hard to imagine a better place to build a sustainability-focused biotech company than Colorado. It’s a perfect cross-section: a combination of our state’s world-class tech startup ecosystem and a thriving environmental sustainability industry.
One key partner is EcoEnclose, a Louisville-based company that provides sustainable packaging for brands like Adidas and Smartwool. They share the same ethos as Living Ink, explains Dr. Albers, and they’ve adopted Living Ink’s product for their packaging.
Many businesses that aren’t explicitly focused on environmental solutions also share this same culture. For example, Octave Photonics uses Living Ink in the packaging for their photonic chips. While Dynamic Tech Media was interviewing Octave for their own Colorado Tech Spotlight, they brought this up, and that’s what led us to Living Ink in the first place.
Whenever you talk about tech in Colorado, the conversation almost always comes back to our top-tier universities. Living Ink’s journey started at CSU, and the university has continued to support them throughout their journey. From providing them with their first seed funding to hosting them in incubator space at the Institute for Entrepreneurship, “CSU gave us the chance to become a business,” says Dr. Albers.
Support from the state government has also been crucial. Grant funding from the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) enabled them to purchase the equipment they needed to turn their powdered pigments into liquid ink, for instance. This accelerated their path to commercialization.
Algae may be the primary ingredient in most of their products, but their process can actually work with lots of different types of biomass. So when they got a chance to collaborate with New Belgium Brewing to see if they could repurpose waste products from the craft-beer brewing process, it was a no-brainer.
It’s hard to imagine a more archetypical Colorado collaboration than a tech company working with a craft brewery to improve environmental sustainability!
At the end of the day, it’s that culture, that shared sense of purpose, that pushes Living Ink forward.
“We’ve found unbelievable employees who do it for more than just a paycheck,” concludes Albers. “It’s about the passion to do something better, to make this place better because we love it. I really love Colorado because of that.”
About the Colorado Tech Spotlight
The Colorado Tech Spotlight highlights local innovations and the stories behind them. The series explores how the Colorado tech ecosystem creates an environment that promotes technological progress.
It is produced by Dynamic Tech Media and written by John Himes. Photography by Kort Duce.
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