No Algae Cultivation Without Gas Technology

Carbon dioxide plays a central role in profitable algae cultivation. The technology is provided by German manufacturer Witt.

The company is one of a few producers who provide all the necessary key systems for gas handling. These include mixing, dosing and control systems as well as analyzers and safety equipment. “A project team designs the entire gas installation technology”, says Martin Bender. “This is advisable for safety reasons and it also simplifies approval processes for the operator”. The application specialist has also set up production for a number of products.

Since 2010, Witt has seen a rise in demand from Germany and abroad. Worldwide, algae producers and scientists are working extremely hard to make the manufacturing process more efficient. Already now, some nine million tons are harvested each year, and the trend is rising. Carbon dioxide plays a central role because it significantly accelerates the growth of the aquatic plant. Precise instruments are needed especially for precise dosing and analyzing the gases in artificial cultivation. “Nutrients, heat and CO2 are the only preconditions - if these are perfectly combined, algae grow up to 20 times faster than land plants”, says Bender about the productivity.

Algae are considered a crop of the future, and their positive characteristics have been proven. They are already more prevalent than generally assumed. Algae are contained in foods, animal feed, cosmetics, medicines and building material; they can clean wastewater and are a much talked about raw material for energy production. Since algae absorb carbon dioxide, they are also under discussion as a climate regulator. Trials are already underway investigating the use of algae in hydrogen production and battery technology for transport.