Algae – Marine Plants for the Future

Algae are the future. It’s that simple. With it we can feed, fuel and cure more people than by other means. This is not news, but the bottleneck has been in producing and processing enough algae cost efficiently.

Algae only consume sunshine, CO₂ and a miniscule amount of salts. They require only cheap, otherwise unproductive land, with no competition to food crops for farmland. This is the most environmentally positive industry imaginable – our only impacts are positive: a reduction of CO₂ and increases in fish-stocks, farmland availability and (rain)forest conservation!

Several projects are underway to perform this work in developing countries so as to bring maximum benefit to the people who need it the most.

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY
Our research involves increasing productivity of algal growth and harvesting/post-processing, both by patented, proprietary techniques. We meet the challenge of obtaining sufficient yield by patented methods of light and CO₂ utilization, those being the 2 major inputs to photosynthesis. We further manipulate the algal cultures to emphasize metabolic synthesis of the product we are after. We have also developed a more efficient means of separating water from the algal biomass which significantly reduces production costs.

FINAL PRODUCTS
Our research has led to various products, including:

Dry Biomass (spray-dried/atomized)
Wet algae paste of 20% cell dry weight
Extracts from biomass yielding purified oils which are rich in essential omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
Anti-oxidants and Natural Colorants for pharmaceutical and food applications

The fish hatchery market is a great outlet for general algae biomass, as they use it to feed fish larvae and rotifers, resulting in a food chain free of environmental pollutants as opposed to the common practice of feeding fishmeal. This leads to higher quality and healthier end products, as well as helps to minimize the environmental impact of fish farms. For human consumption, the algae biomass is processed further to yield a variety of products from vegetarian essential fatty acids to antioxidants and colorants. Side streams are utilized for energy use to improve the overall energy balance of the growing – harvesting – processing chain and to reduce the amount of low level by-products. It is an important point to recycle water, minerals and nutrients to the algae.