Large-scale production of algae

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1967

OSTI ID:5398149

Oswald, W J; Goleuke, C G

Pilot plant studies in a one-million liter plant at Richmond, California indicate that the cost of algae in projected large plants would be from three to ten cents per pound--about 10% of the cost projections made ten years ago for algae in large-scale culture. Reductions in predicted costs, have resulted from the engineering development of a simple growth system which consists simply of a shallow open pond mixed by means of large conventional propeller pumps. Based on results obtained with the Richmond pilot plant, it can be demonstrated that algal culture should be competitive with conventional agriculture for use of land, water, energy, capital, and human resources. This conclusion is based on the evidence that algae culture requires only one-tenth as much land, one-fifth as much water, three fourths as much power, one-fifteenth as much labor, and one-fourth as much capital as is required by conventional agriculture to produce an equal amount of protein. Based upon current costs of protein and attainable photosynthetic efficiencies, large-scale algal culture should soon contribute significantly to the world's protein resources at a cost below any competitive source of protein.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5398149
• Report Number(s): PB-296411
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ALGAE
AQUACULTURE
CALIFORNIA
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMPETITION
DRYING
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
EFFICIENCY
FOOD
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
LAND USE
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
PILOT PLANTS
PLANTS
PONDS
PROCESSING
PRODUCTION
PROTEINS
PUMPS
SYNTHESIS
USA
USES
WESTERN REGION