Technology & Facilities

Cultivation of microalgae for the treatment and disposal of combustion gases generated in industrial processes require a large investment. It is recommended, therefore, to know beforehand if the combustion gases emitted are compatible with the cultivation of microalgae and also what their efficiency is.

AlgaEnergy has developed the technology of on-site flue gas analysis and its temporary storage in active carbon. Depending on the composition of those gases, any CO₂emitting company may, also on-site, experience and select – with different types of water and effluents – the most efficient microorganism for CO₂ capture, according to all these parameters, with the ultimate goal of transforming this pernicious gas into reusable biomass rich in compounds of interest.

Such services and unique features have interacted in the CO2BIOCAP mobile laboratory, which, due to its novelty, has been industrially protected.

AlgaEnergy has constructed and is operating since 2011 its own Technological Microalgal Experimentation Platform (PTEM), which is possibly the R&D’s most powerful and versatile private tool within the international arena of microalgal biotechnology.

Located at the “Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas” Airport, alongside the T4, the PTEM combines different types of photobioreactors which can simultaneously cultivate several strains of microalgae, being one of its main nutrients the CO₂ obtained from IBERIA’s industrial facilities.

The purpose of the PTEM is the industrial development of the R&D, focused on improving the design of the production technologies with permanent innovations across all phases of the process, as well as serving as experimentation plant, whose production is transferred to its more than hundred collaborators within the frame of the R&D Programs in which it participates.

The PTEM is the result of AlgaEnergy’s collaboration agreements signed with the Ministry of Transport (Ministry of Development), IBERIA (Spanish Airlines), and AENA (the world’s leading airport operator), and its construction has been co-financed by the Madrid Community and the European Union (European Fund for Regional Development – FEDER).

The Plant of “Arcos de la Frontera” has the goal of biofixating the CO₂ from industrially originated real flue gas emissions via microalgae culturing, transforming this noxious gas into products of commercial interest.

The plant has been constructed in an extension of 10,000m2, annexed to the biggest Combyned Cycle Power Plant in Spain, owned by AlgaEnergy’s partner and shareholder IBERDROLA (public company), and takes its main nutrient –the CO₂-, directly from the emitting chimney.

In May 2014, with the start of the plant’s first phase operations, which are completely automatized, AlgaEnergy consolidated its leading international positioning within the sector of the microalgae biotechnology, contributing with this industrial facility, whose size and technologies had never been experimented together before, to the practical an beneficial use of CO2 by mankind, and the obtaining of new products based on the culture of photosynthetic microorganisms.

The industrial plant of “Arcos de la Frontera”  forms part of the CO2ALGAEFIX program, co-funded by the European Commission through the LIFE + Program, whose consortium is led by ALGAENERGY and participated by IBERDROLA, the ANDALUSIAN ENERGY AGENCY, the UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE, the UNIVERSITY OF ALMERIA, EXELERIA and MADRID BIOCLUSTER.

If you wish further information on the CO2ALGAEFIX program, please visit: www.co2algaefix.es