Many species of algae such as Spirulina algae are very rich sources of food. They contain almost all the Proteins, Carbohydrates, Vitamins and Minerals. Some of the nutrition such as Omega-3 fatty acids presents only in algae other than fishes. Once produced they can be sold to food companies in bulk. But the quality (weather the algae is free from contaminants or not) will determine the price and marketability of the produced algae.
It is very easy and profitable to grow algae for food, if the growing conditions suitable for algae are mate. These conditions include nutrient filled water, sunlight (dim sunlight), additional source of carbon dioxide, suitable temperature, and suitable pH.
There are two major ways of growing algae, these are growing algae in photobioreactors and growing algae in open ponds. Growing algae in photobioreactors involve the growing of algae in enclosed transparent containers, which are called photobioreactors. And growing of algae in open ponds involves growing of algae with out any cover container in an open environment where the algae get direct sunlight. The two techniques of growing algae have their own advantages.
Advantages of Photobioreactors
- They give control on the system such as the amount of biomass produced, the amount of light, the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases, easy to regulate the temperature, easy control of the amount of nutrients in the water and easy control of the pH
- Relatively they have less contamination which comes from other weed or unwanted species of algae. For this reason alga grown for food in photobioreactors is considered high in quality.
- Algae grow and and mature at a faster rate
- There are no evaporation losses of moisture
- Produce expensive algae
- Algae can be produced at any environmental conditions since all the growth factors such as nutrients, temperature, sunlight, pH and amount of gases are artificially controlled.
- It has an advantage over open pond, for its quality, purity and higher price, but photobioreactors are very expensive to setup and to run.
- Photobioreactors require a small area for production, but they require a lot of building facility, which is very costly.
Advantages of Open pond
- Growing of algae in open ponds is very cheap
- It can be done in any open pond
- It can be done at home for extra income
- It doesn’t require any control Other than supplementing nutrients and artificial injection of CO2 and controlling the amount of direct sunlight by providing some shading mechanism.
- Cost effective to produce algae in such open ponds
- They require no building facility, but they need more area than photobioreactors.
- They are easy to set up, but they are very difficult to manage due to contamination and environmental fluctuations. Also evaporation losses of moisture is very high
