Living Ink working with partners to commercialize algae-based ink

In Colorado, Living Ink makes inks based on algae and is partnering with printers to bring Algae Ink to commercialization. Living Ink is using proprietary technology to take the crude pigment from algae and purify it, mill it, and form it into a dispersion that can then be formulated into a variety of products including ink, according to Ink World.

Shelf life of the ink was a challenge the company has now overcome by “refining the pigment into a purer form, while tweaking the ink formulation to keep pigments suspended in solution,” Dr. Scott Fulbright, Living Ink’s CEO told Ink World.

The ink is very similar to other ink formulations making it a “drop-in” solution so printers can use it just like any other ink. Except that Living Ink’s algae-based pigment makes it 100% biorenewable, unlike petroleum-based pigment. Even better, they developed several different colors of algae to make different colored inks, though black ink is still the one with the most demand and the one they are focused on scaling up.