by Giles Parkinson |
Listed Australian company Algae.Tec today officially opened what it described as the first advanced engineered algae-to-biofuels facility in Australia – another contender for what is widely expected to be a billion-dollar industry within a few years.
The facility, known as Shoalhaven One and situated in an adapted shipping container, is located at the Nowra refinery of ethanol producer Manildra. Algae.Tec hopes to demonstrate that its enclosed systems are scalable and high yield, and provide an attractive alternative to the open pond systems developed by rival algae producers.
The opening was the culmination of 12 years development work by company chairman Roger Stroud and his business partner, Earl McConchie, who developed an eponymous harvesting system known as the McConchie-Stroud System.
Algae.Tec says it plans to grow non-GMO algae on an industrial scale, and says its technology has demonstrated “exceptional performance’ in productivity and product yield. It captures carbon dioxide emissions from power stations and factories, and produces fuel that can be used in jets without displacing agricultural crops.
The algae photobioreactors (PBRs), which were assembled as its US headquarters, will take a carbon dioxide feed from the ethanol fermenters at the Manildra refinery into the algae growth system.
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