The new system’s improved design reduces electrical resistance and enhances harvesting performance, and ultimately reduces energy consumption, while the available intelligent power management system via sensors takes readings such as salinity, temperature, pH and algal density, to help achieve optimum algal harvest.
OriginOil vice president of quality assurance and services Jose Sanchez has demonstrated the new EWS algae unit, which can remove bacteria without harming the algae crop, at the Algae Biomass Summit 2013.
"According to independent testing, Bacteria exposed to EWS Algae is reduced from a factor of 99% (referred as ‘Log 2’ by biologists) to a factor of 99.9999999% (referred as ‘Log 9’), depending on the period of exposure. The alga passed through EWS is typically left largely unharmed.
"We have found that the new EWS Algae system can help trigger metabolic processes that can transform Hematococcus pluvialis from its green phase, to the red phase in which the stressed cells encyst and astaxanthin forms as a pigment," added Sanchez.
