Microalgae: Basics and applications

Event details
Date | 24.04.2012 |
Hour | 16:15 |
Speaker | Dr Marcel Janssen, Wageningen University, Department Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Bioprocess Engineering Group, NL |
Location | |
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
The waters of the world, oceans, seas, rivers, creeks, lakes and even ice house a tremendous variety of micro-organisms able to use light energy as the only source of energy to fuel metabolism. These unicellular organisms, micro-algae and cyanobacteria, are also capable of incorporating inorganic carbon and this type of metabolism is usually referred to as photoautotrophic growth. Microalgae and cyanobacteria are an abundant source of interesting products that can contribute to human health and wellbeing: high-value food ingredients (proteins pigments and antioxidants), bulk chemicals, food and feed lipids, food and feed protein, or possibly biofuels. The use of sunlight, or artificial light, imposes specific demands on the bioreactors and cultivation protocols. This seminar aims to give basic insight into the energetics of photoautotrophic growth and the maximal productivity of microalgae-based production processes. In addition, general characteristics and performance of microalgae cultivation systems (photobioreactors and pond systems) will be presented. To conclude, recent developments in biochemical engineering of microalgae and cyanobacteria will be discussed.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Dr Jean-Paul Schwitzguebel, LBE