Algae
Algae project almost ready for the real world
Proviron’s algae story is fascinating. An average pond lover fiercely fights the slimy, green threads, but not the enthusiastic researchers at Proviron. They try to find ways to grow as many algae as possible, on a space as small as possible and with a minimum of investment and energy.
Microalgae come in thousands of variations but are, generally speaking, small, one-celled organisms that live in a watery environment where they convert sunlight into useful substances. The process is called photosynthesis, which is exactly what your houseplants or trees do. Algae however, do that a lot more efficiently as they don’t have to maintain roots or keep up a trunk. Algae use the energy derived from photosynthesis almost exclusively to grow and multiply. The result is a very pure and energetic product, full of beneficial substances.
Innovative idea
Algae can be turned into lots of products: fertilisers, cattle feed, cosmetics, bio fuels … In view of the renewables strategy and the pursuit of more vertical integration, the algae concept had already drawn Proviron’s attraction for a while. When someone came up with a very innovative idea (see later), this initiated intensive research. It wasn’t about an algae application, but about mass cultivation. After all, the big obstacle that keeps the industry from applying algae massively is its expensive production. There are several reactor types in which algae are cultivated but they all have important disadvantages such as a large volume, a high investment cost and high energy consumption. The cost per kilo is proportionately high. Proviron believes to know the answer to this.
One material, one production run
Problems are challenges and challenges sharpen creativity. In the context of the algae story: how do you make a cheap reactor, which is also efficient, very automated, low on energy consumption, and has many other advantages? The innovative idea was a – meanwhile patented – photo-bioreactor, made from strong plastic film. The layman would describe it as a big plastic bag full of water, within which equally plastic vertical compartments sit, in which the algae grow. This ingenious concept has two main features: the bioreactor is made of one, relatively cheap material (plastic) and it can be produced in a single production run. When the existing prototype is fully finalised and the production machine is ready, it will be cheap to mass manufacture bioreactors.
Everything is there
Proviron’s bioreactor has been developed in cooperation with the Dutch Wageningen University and with the Belgian University of Ghent as a network partner. If offers many more advantages. The algae production requires a constant supply of nutrients such as CO2 and a steady discharge of produced oxygen. The algae too have to be harvested on a continuous basis. These features are also provided for, and on top of that, it is done automatically and at a low energy cost.
Greek baby-fish farms
Meanwhile, researchers are intensively testing the prototypes and ultimate improvements have been applied. A machine builder is working hard on a production device. At the same time, Proviron is in contact with potential users. Those are, by way of getting acquainted, Greek fisheries, or rather baby-fish farms or hatcheries. These require a specific breed of algae to feed the miniscule fish until they reach a certain size and are ready to be sold to proper fisheries. To grow their feed algae these hatcheries would use in real life the first machine-made bioreactors. Proviron can then learn from their experiences. It is too early to predict what will happen afterwards, but one could imagine even bigger mass production for e.g. bigger fish feeding. Other possibilities are variations on the bioreactor to produce other kinds of algae, suitable for different applications. In any event, external experts too estimate this to be a very promising development, which in 2009 will be tested in the real world. The odds are favourable: the technology is ready, the time is ripe and the market is open.