Green Power in Agri-Business Park
Algaepro™ is a Cradle-to-Cradle principle. This concept involves using the residues of waste water from industrial companies and households—residues that are then transformed into high-grade biomass, biodiesel or energy by means of algae cultivation. Royal Haskoning is going to develop and build the technology with algae specialist Ingrepro to turn waste products into foodstuffs. The two partners have signed a letter of intent to develop Algaepro™. They are in discussions about the application of algae technology in an agri-business park, where high-quality agricultural and horticultural products will be cultivated.
Algae don’t look ‘sexy’. They grow in algae farms as a fluorescent green layer in special ponds. Yet algae are essential to life on earth: most of the oxygen on earth is produced by algae in the sea and not, as most people still think, by virgin forests.
Cradle-to-Cradle
Ingrepro is Europe’s largest industrial producer of algae in the food and feed sector. The company has special knowledge of the production of enriched algae biomass. Micro-algae are already being processed into animal food for (fish, birds and dogs) and in food supplements for people, such as spirulina tablets. Algae can also be used as a mould inhibitor for crop protection. ‘By starting up an agri-business with Ingrepro according to the Cradle-to-Cradle principle, we are making use of each other’s substantive knowledge and experience,’ explains project manager Rikus Oortwijn. ‘Linking algae cultivation to a fish farm is an ingenious process. Specialist fish farms need food for their fish. Fish live on tiny organisms which eat algae in their turn. In the fish farms these fish produce waste water containing nitrogen and phosphates. These two chemicals again form the basis for algae cultivation and so the circle is complete.’
Linking knowledge
Carel Callenbach, director van Ingrepro, also sees a great deal of added value in the joint venture, ‘The best way to get business from algae cultivation is by linking our specialist knowledge to a partner that has sufficient ‘body’ and knowledge and experience of technology, planning and project coordination. It is a confirmation for our clients that we are on the right track when a large established consultancy firm like Royal Haskoning has confidence in a relatively small organization like Ingrepro. And conversely Royal Haskoning can show that it is investing in setting up very innovative projects’.
Pilot
Royal Haskoning and Ingrepro are currently in discussions about participating in an agri-business park, where high-tech products will be cultivated—things like greenhouses with high-quality plants, aquaculture and fish and algae cultivation Royal Haskoning’s role in this project is to fit algae technology into this business park. ‘We are approaching this project inter-divisionally,’ says Oortwijn. ‘Experts from environment, water and industry are working hard on it to open up the market and start concrete projects. In the market there is still a certain wariness when it comes to algae technology. So we want to run a pilot to show that it works, by combining our knowledge of waste water treatment and energy generation with algae cultivation.’
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Contact: Rikus Oortwijn
+31 (0)10 2865 366
r.oortwijn@royalhaskoning.com
