Technology Opportunities

New alga for biomass and bioenergy

Highlights

• Grows very fast outdoor and to very high densities.
• No photoinhibitory damages, even at light intensities twice that of full sunlight.
• Grow very fast under salt concentration as high as 2.5% NaCl.
• Growth is not perturbed by temperatures up to 45 oC.

Our Innovation

Photosynthetic organisms, including algae and plants, are susceptible to photo-inhibition, whereby excess light energy cause oxidative damage to the photosynthetic reaction centres severely reducing productivity. Algal productivity in outdoor growth facilities suffer from too much light at the surface and too little a few millimetres beneath due to the need to grow the cells to high densities to reduce the harvesting costs. Further, in many cases cooling of the media may be required and use of brackish waters to grow the cells is of advantage.

We isolated and characterized a small green alga with unique abilities including:

• Fastest growth rate and biomass accumulation ever reported in algae reaching cell densities of over 109 cells/mL; OD730 nm of over 20.
• Wide dynamic range of growth under optimal and stress conditions including high temperatures and salinities.
• Fast photosynthetic rates under both low and high irradiance and complete resistance to photoinhibition.
• Unique desiccation tolerance.
• High light induced structural and metabolic changes, 3-fold rise in lipids content.

In addition to other biotechnological uses, being very rich in proteins, this alga may be used as a feedstock for fish, animals and people.

Picture: A dividing algae cell

Key Features

• Excellent protein and carbohydrate source for animals and human beings feeding
• Fast growth to high densities under a wide range of conditions also in brackish waters

Development Milestones

• Ready to be used in commercial algal growth facilities

The Opportunity

Given its unique characteristics this alga is a game changer in the field of algal biomass growth facilities.