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Funding
Cequesta is owned by Aardvark Investments, a publicly quoted fund on the Euronext exchange. Aardvark is devoted to supporting cutting edge technology enterprises in the alternative energy and cleantech sectors. Cequesta's sister companies are Maltagen of Andernach, Germany and Ecoenergy of USA and UK.
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Technology
For algae to be grown cheaply and efficiently on a large scale, it is necessary to develop a whole range of new techniques. Our large scale algae field designs or LSAFs have many unique and proprietary features including water recycling, low energy downstream processing, and efficient input infrastructure for water and CO2 injection.
There are many who are disturbed by the low productivity and energy intensity of conventionally grown bio-crops.
Algae hold out great potential since for any given area one can obtain an energy yield of 50- 100 times that of rapeseed, maize, or soya. The problem is that the large scale algae field design is a relatively new concept and costs are still high.
Here are some basic calculations.
In many parts of the world, diesel fuel oil sells for $1 per litre including taxes or $1000 per tonne. From 1 tonne of micro-algae, one can expect to produce no more than 350kg of bio-diesel and ethanol. In addition there are costs of downstream processing, storage, and transport. This means that for algae to bio-diesel to be profitable, the algae itself must be produced at $200 per tonne- a very tall order which is simply impossible with present day methods.
Presently the cheapest spirulina algae in the market are being produced by open pond or raceway methods at $4000-$6000 per tonne. Open raceway experts believe that in ideal climatic conditions they can reduce costs to perhaps $3000 but no less.
Using effective photo-bioreactor (PBR) technology, productivity per hectare can increase several fold. But the cheapest PBRs presently available are no cheaper than open raceway. We believe that our technology has the potential to reduce algae prices to $2000 per tonne and lower. The target of $200 per tonne for bio-deisel is very much a longer term dream.
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