7 Days from Seed to Harvest: Cellana, and the rise of algae in a world seeking more, faster, better

The water-usage demon

In a number of algae ventures around the world, the limiting factor is the need for fresh-water. Sometimes it is not available, or affordable, or it costs too much to move around.

What we see here at the Cellana Farm is a system using a salt-water algae, nannochloropsis. The water in the ponds is filtered to prevent accumulation of algae’s predators — the water use to cool the sunlight-laden closed photobioreactors used to seed the ponds — that’s pure cold Pacific seawater. The use of seawater generally restricts a Cellana system to a coastal area — and it’s too cold for places like Canada.

The CO2 demon

One limitation on algae cultivation for potential growers has been the sourcing of CO2 to accelerate algae growth. Merchant VO2 is expensive to buy and transport – more useful for pilots and demonstrations. Flue gas from, say, coal-fired power plants — well, an algae farm would have to be truly gigantic to offtake all that gas, and you have to transport it (pipe or otherwise) and that adds costs and limit the geography.

The Cellana system we see has a different path and one that is very interesting to those who note that remote non-arable land almost never has a CO2 source, or power. You can use renewable diesel (or biodiesel) to generate power for the farm — and pleasingly, the exhaust gas can be used as a substitute for other CO2 sources with no difference in productivity seen in comparative studies. Optionally, the farm can make it’s own biodiesel from the non-EPA algae oils that are extracted.

So, a self-contained system, with a built-in carbon capture and use.