Research – Rainforest Algae

CURRENT

Research Focus

RESEARCH

Achievements

These are some examples of applications.

Technology

Basic technological components have been integrated to establish that they work together in a laboratory environment and have demonstrated that a doubling of both culture density and yield is possible over published literature values.

Successful development of 10L automated PBR with remote data acquisition, monitoring, control functionality.

Successful construction and commissioning of 420L flow-through PBR system with remote data acquisition, monitoring and control functionality.

Current harvesting of spirulina algae can occur either via batch processing or via continuous harvesting.

Rainforest Algae Corp has developed a patent pending flow-through technology platform that successfully doubles known yields and densities of algae, with key patent pending innovations and the ability to produce protein utilizing raw exhaust from a natural gas combined heat power (CHP) systems.

RAINFOREST COOKIES CO.

Our Cookies

We have multiple cookie recipes. Two options for chocolate lovers include:

What the research is about

Develop a photobioreactor agricultural cultivation technology that enables the commercial production of edible algae protein that will successfully compete economically with other protein food sources globally with a production cost below $20/kg dry weight (dw).

Driving down capital and operating costs achieved by focused research activities.

RESEARCH

Current Research Focus

Commission of 100 L photobioreactor (PBR) system
Design and construction of 1m3 PBR
Flashing light and light spectrum optimization studies
Mass gas transfer between phases
Nutrient optimization
Renewable energy integration
Algae harvesting operations
PBR operational optimization strategies
Application of machine language (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) for cultivation optimization
PBR system energy management optimization
Protein extraction research
Food recipe development
Process automation
Nano particle Tracking Analysis (NTA) for optimization of nanobubbles
Investigation of carbon credit pathways to bring value to interested paying client companies.

Next Steps

This project aims to scale to a commercial level of a skid-mounted 28m3 PBR algae cultivation system, fully automated for optimization of processes from cultivation through to harvesting, drying and storage.

RESEARCH

Why this is important

Algae is the fastest growing plant on the planet
CO₂ is a key nutrient (GHG mitigation)
The composition: carbohydrates, protein (60-70%) of biomass, lipid, synthesis of bioactives, antioxidants
Algae cultivation doesn't compete with conventional terrestrial crops
Potential application on space missions
It can help with food demand caused by world population growth
Through the research, production costs can be decreased

The coordinated / integrated research activities are expected to result in moving the technology one important step closer to reaching a commercial scale PBR system at which point we envision the potential of initiating commercial production of a new algae agricultural protein product to markets, without competing with existing other Canadian terrestrial crops and producers.

Reduction of labour and energy inputs while scaling to a commercial level will serve to reduce protein production costs.Cultivation of the algae will result in quantifiable CO2 utilization and GHG emission mitigation activities associated with this agricultural sector.

Utilizing advanced PBR technologies have the potential of overcoming the climatic barrier and the ability to produce higher quality edible biomass.This translates into the potential to produce a new agricultural crop without impacting existing food production.

Research Focus

Achievements

Technology

Our Cookies

What the research is about​

Current Research Focus

Why this is important

Current Research Focus

What the research is about