Donate to Science & Enterprise

S&E on Mastodon

S&E on LinkedIn

S&E on Flipboard

Please share Science & Enterprise

Netherlands to Open Bio-Solar Research, Production Center

Algae cultivation at AlgaePARC (Wageningen UR)

Algae cultivation at AlgaePARC (Wageningen UR)

The Netherlands begins on 17 June its BioSolar Cells research program to strengthen the science behind the sustainable production of bio-energy and food through photosynthesis. Also on 17 June, Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands opens its Algae Production and Research Centre (AlgaePARC), a production-scale lab to raise the output from algae bio-reactors while lowering production costs.

BioSolar Cells is a national five-year program involving nine research institutes and 25 industrial partners. Funding for the project, totaling EUR 42 million (USD 59 million) comes from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and participating institutes and businesses.

The research will cover the production of sustainable energy through photosynthesis, a familiar natural process, yet still one with a great deal of biological variation. The goal of the BioSolar Cells project is to learn more about the ways photosynthesis creates energy and oxygen using the sun, carbon dioxide, and water.

Some 50 research projects in the BioSolar Cells program are planned on methods for developing the natural system of photosynthesis in plants and micro-organisms. Among them are projects to devise processes that mimic natural photosynthesis.

Wageningen’s AlgaePARC will test production of fuel, chemicals, food, and feed from algae on a larger scale approaching industrial quantities. While lab research and small-scale pilot projects have shown algae’s potential for generating these products, their economic feasibility and sustainability are still open questions.

The billions of algae in water use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and minerals to produce biomass, which is harvested as a crop. The biomass is dried and refined into oils, protein, and starch and pigments such as carotene. These bulk substances can then serve as raw materials for bio-diesel, degradable plastics, natural pigments, animal feed, and food products.

AlgaePARC plans to bridge the gap between lab research and industrial production of algae. The more promising algae cultivation systems will be measured against factors such as cost, efficiency, and sustainability. The AlgaePARC has four large (24 square meter) and three small (2.4 square meter) transparent water-filled installations where the algae can grow, using sunlight as the energy source. The facility also has various types of cultivation systems including tubular reactors and the traditional open-pond system.

Read more:

*     *     *

1 comment to Netherlands to Open Bio-Solar Research, Production Center