Algae Lights
|
Welcome to our Algae Lights for commercial production page where you will discover information about amazing algae, the most efficient lighting spectrum and design to increase algae culture density during all phases of algae growth development.
Algae species are one of the first building blocks in evolution. |
When most people think of algae they think of blue green algae often reported about in river systems and advertised as toxic bloom where swimming should be avoided or dangerous to stock health.
Blue-green algae is not in fact algae at all.
It is technically cyanobacteria which is photosynthetic bacteria that lack a nucleus and have the same properties as bacteria.
Blue-green algae is not in fact algae at all.
It is technically cyanobacteria which is photosynthetic bacteria that lack a nucleus and have the same properties as bacteria.
|
What is algae?
To start with the term algae is related to photosynthetic organisms of which there are more algae species than we can imagine. More species than all known plants and animals and we are continually identifying more and more. Algae can be found wherever there is light both visible and non visible to the human eye, wherever there is moisture and micro-nutrients for them to grow and divide. |
Algae is divided into 2 categories.
Microalgae and Macroalgae
Microalgae and Macroalgae
|
Microalgae are larger than cyanobateria but are tiny individual single cells. They grow and divide when conditions are conducive to the species of microalgae to form a cluster of cells becoming visible to our eyes or "saturated culture". The saturated culture can be used for a whole range of commercial applications. Microalgae can be used for feeding the aquaculture food chain to commercial food additives, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bio-fuels and improved stock feed both nutritionally and also at the back end of cows with dramatically reducing methane and carbon dioxide emissions.
Microalgae can be red, brown or green of which we have discovered thousands of species with thousands yet still to be discovered. 
|
Macroalgae are multi-cellular and grow much larger than the microalgae. Organisms such as seaweed, kelp and sea grasses are types of macroalgae and have been used as a source of food and nutrition in many cultures for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Today we use macroalgae`s not only for commercial food additives and products such as sushi wrappers but gelling agents in textiles (sodium alginate), pharmaceuticals, bio fuels and carbon catchment storage systems. Macroalgae`s are fast growing making them commercially viable to farm in a controlled environment with our algae grow lights. |
|
Why is commercial algae production becoming popular?
|
Algae Production
|
Commercial algae production is on the rise with large farming operations being set up world wide. The need to feed the world can be done more profitable and more environmentally sustainable with this emerging industry. The benefit algae offers to humans is enormous.
Aquaculture and fish farming alike rely on amazing algae as a food source in the chain of production. Development of different algae species will in time lead to a healthy farmed products free of trace metals and toxins as in wild catch seafood. The elimination of using waste animal based feed products and the shift towards commercially available algae organic feed pellets in fish farms will increase quality, production and marketability. Cattle, chicken feed lots and our planet will benefit from using algae as an alternative food source as algae is not only cheaper to produce than grain and cereal crops but is expected to reduce methane and carbon dioxide emissions by around 80%. Waste water treatment for industry and public facilities can use algae to clean up toxins and waste chemicals. Algae can be utilized as a bio-fuel as well as a substitute in industry petrochemical processors. |
Astaxanthin
The worlds most powerful antioxidant (by 100 fold) Astaxanthin is a health food supplement, an organic dye used in the food industry and cosmetics industry where the dry weight finished powder can be worth between $2,000 to $10,000 per kilogram depending on its quality and purity.
|
The canopy of a forest has the ability to absorb or utilize photo-synthetically a wide spectral range of wavelengths where as a rare orchid or mushroom will only utilize specific wavelengths due to its habitat and order in the larger ecosystem.
What colour lighting spectrum is best for growing algae?
Even thou cyanobacteria and algae photosynthesize similar to land base plants the cellular structure and the chemistry it uses to photosynthesize is different.
The structures of the cell attached to the photosynthetic capturing lung are know as antennae are are similar to a radio or television antennae in that its size and shape dictate the signals it receives or the light spectrum it will use to photosynthesize. Various algae species thrive in different environmental conditions and one way to understand what spectral light is most absorbed and utilized by the algae is by analyzing the pigment colour of the alga's antennae structure.
Along with examining the antennae the amount of biomass that filters light before the photosynthetic lung can utilize it can have an effect on the spectral wavelengths it receives. The dimming or intensity of light can be crucial for algae farmers when growing new algae cultures as there is less biomass.
The structures of the cell attached to the photosynthetic capturing lung are know as antennae are are similar to a radio or television antennae in that its size and shape dictate the signals it receives or the light spectrum it will use to photosynthesize. Various algae species thrive in different environmental conditions and one way to understand what spectral light is most absorbed and utilized by the algae is by analyzing the pigment colour of the alga's antennae structure.
Along with examining the antennae the amount of biomass that filters light before the photosynthetic lung can utilize it can have an effect on the spectral wavelengths it receives. The dimming or intensity of light can be crucial for algae farmers when growing new algae cultures as there is less biomass.
Best light to grow algae.
The solution is if we can provide the algae strain with the exact wavelength of light that it needs to photosynthesize and grow then energy is not wasted by using other wavelengths that algae does not use to photosynthesize. For this reason we have produced what we think is the optimum wavelengths in our "Algae Lights" however spectral variances can be made to suit your application or strain of algae. Within our Algae Lights you still have the ability to control spectral range between the three channels as shown above.
Maximize energy efficiency with our new generation algae growing lights.
