World’s largest microalgae plant opens in Sarawak
Published on: Wednesday, March 29, 2023
By: Bernama
KUCHING: Chitose Group (Chitose), an entity formed by biotechnology startups managed by Chitose Bio Evolution Pte Ltd based in Japan and Singapore, has announced the construction of a five-hectare (ha) microalgae production facility, Chitose Carbon Capture Central (C4) was completed and the production of microalgae has been started in Sarawak, Malaysia.According to Chitose in a statement, it plans to establish the stable, continuous and large-scale production of microalgae, and its production technology aims at proceeding with the development of applications for a wide range of industrial materials, including fuels and plastics.
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Chitose aims for zero carbon emission through photoautotrophic microalgae production and through the MATSURI (meaning “festival” in Japanese) project, which is designed to establish a microalgae-based industry replacing the petroleum-based industry.
At the same time, the company plans to develop diverse products used in daily life from microalgae, including fuels, plastics, foods and toiletry, in collaboration with its business partners.
Backed by the Japanese government-funded New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation, C4 is expected to demonstrate the efficient and scalable production of microalgal biomass (utilising photobioreactor technologies) and to produce 350 dry tonnes of microalgal biomass per year, fixing 700 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
At C4, gas exhausted from a neighbouring coal-fired power plant is used as a carbon source, and the produced microalgal biomass will be used for sustainable production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other products.
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Towards 2030, Chitose is planning to expand the production to 2,000 ha and is currently in the process of raising funds for this move.
In algae production on a scale of 2,000 ha, approximately 140,000 dry tonnes of microalgal dry-biomass per year will be produced, and the production cost will be less than US$2.5 per kg biomass. (US$1=RM4.38)
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Further, it also aims to expand the production to over 10,000,000 ha, which is approximately 1/20 of the world’s maize-harvested area and will produce 700 million dry tonnes of microalgal biomass annually, hence the production cost will potentially fall to less than US$0.5 per kg biomass.
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