{"id":182992,"date":"2026-10-30T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T06:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=182992"},"modified":"2026-10-30T08:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:55:18","slug":"recognition-for-algae-based-black-pigment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/recognition-for-algae-based-black-pigment\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognition for algae-based black pigment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Living Ink Technologies has been named among TIME <\/em>magazine\u2019s Best Inventions of 2026 for its development of a renewable black pigment made from algae and other biological waste streams.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Living Ink Technologies<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Colorado-based company\u2019s Algae Black technology is already being used in commercial applications by brands including Patagonia, New Balance and Stella McCartney, providing an alternative to conventional petroleum-derived carbon black in textiles, apparel, packaging and other products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected in TIME\u2019s <\/em>Sustainability category, Algae Black is produced using a process that converts underutilised agricultural, food and industrial waste, including algae byproducts and brewery yeast, into high-performance pigments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology has been developed by Living Ink co-founders Scott Fulbright and Stevan Albers as a means of reducing dependence on fossil-based colourants while creating new value from organic waste streams that might otherwise be discarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company describes its pigments as carbon-negative and says they can be incorporated into existing manufacturing processes without requiring changes to equipment or production infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This compatibility is central to its commercial strategy, allowing manufacturers to substitute conventional carbon black with a bio-based alternative while maintaining the colour consistency and performance required for established products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living Ink has been working with a growing network of manufacturing and packaging partners, including EcoEnclose, Yuto Eco-Tech, Trimco Group and NextGen Packaging, to introduce its technology into commercial supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the fashion and textile sectors, Algae Black has already featured in Stella McCartney runway apparel, while other applications include footwear, printed textiles and packaging. The pigment also forms the basis of the company\u2019s Algae Ink range of printing inks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe layer of colour on our daily products often goes completely unnoticed \u2013 just like microalgae is dismissed as pond scum,\u201d said Living Ink CEO Scott Fulbright. \u201cBut these tiny organisms, the very building blocks of life on Earth, hold incredible power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief technology officer Stevan Albers said the ability to integrate the technology into existing manufacturing systems was essential to achieving wider adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe engineered Algae Black so manufacturers can swap out fossil fuels for bio-based waste without changing their existing equipment or sacrificing design fidelity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recognition comes as textile and apparel manufacturers face increasing pressure to address the environmental impact of dyes, pigments and other chemical inputs, alongside the fibres and fabrics used in their products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Living Ink, the opportunity extends well beyond textiles, with potential applications across cosmetics, plastics, rubber products and paints. www.livingink.co<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living Ink Technologies has been named among TIME magazine\u2019s Best Inventions of 2026 for its development of a renewable black pigment made from algae and other biological waste streams. The Colorado-based company\u2019s Algae Black technology is already being used in commercial applications by brands including Patagonia, New Balance and Stella McCartney, providing an alternative to conventional petroleum-derived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":183043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Algae Black has been used for diverse applications including Stella McCartney runway apparel and Waiakea Volcanic Bottled Water printed labels","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[28176,16380,25644,17299,26509,11177,12705],"supplier":[27306,15342,15520,1734,14842,28786,28789],"class_list":["post-182992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-algaebased","tag-biobased","tag-bioink","tag-biomanufacturing","tag-colour","tag-ecofashion","tag-footwear","supplier-living-ink-technologies","supplier-new-balance","supplier-nextgen","supplier-patagonia","supplier-stella-mccartney","supplier-time-magazine","supplier-waiakea-hawaiian-volcanic-water-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183044,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182992\/revisions\/183044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182992"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=182992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}