While we look into fuel product with feedstock from a large perspective of cultivation ponds, we do consider to produce high value product during the transition time to make cash flow.
Figure 1. An illustrative “Green cycle” that shows the cells going through the oil production process
There are only a few microalgae strain that are responsible for producing high value product. By using well-controlled cultivation system, we are able to create optimized growth condition for our microalgae strain. Firstly, we implement a high throughput screening process to locate several preferable conditions for microalgae growth, and then scale up in well-controlled simulated system. Once simulation analysis can demonstrate the area productivity and cost estimation in a variety of environmental conditions, we will make decisions and introduce it to the commercial scale.
Figure 2. A simulation system that can test and analyze the productivity and cost estimate for about 700mL algae media culture in a variety of conditions, such as temperature, CO2/O2 concentration, L/D cycle, light intensity
Let’s take Astaxanthin producers as examples. While Cyanotech are still adopting the serial autotrophic cultivation, current practice in Haematococcus pluvialis cultivation is called two-stage culture, such as AstaReal which is a subsidiary of Fuji chemical. Both Fuji chemical and Algatechnologies use well-controlled enclosed cultivation system, so as to obtain optimized quality for their product.
Figure 3. Haematococcus pluvialis cultivation system by Algatechnologies in Israel