A California company working on algae biofuel has announced a distribution partnership with one of its process partners. World Water Works will distribute OriginOil’s dewatering and extraction systems to its global customer base. The agreement covers product integration, manufacturing and joint marketing.
“We’re excited that World Water Works have decided to manufacture and distribute our devices throughout their international customer base,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO. “This is a major first step in our plan to integrate the algae production process for our customers.”
World Water Works’ Algae Harvesting Technology Optimized (AHTO) system is a patent-pending version of the company’s wastewater industry high rate Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) process, specifically tailored to algae harvesting.
It separates suspended solids (flocculated algae) from the water by a process of dissolving air into water under pressure. Upon release of that pressure, micro-bubbles form. These micro-bubbles interact with the particles to cause them to float to the surface of a vessel where they are skimmed off.
The company says the process brings significant performance and cost advantages over other algae harvesting systems on the market, yielding up to 20% algae concentrations at low operational and capital costs.
Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.
