Heliae Development’s Algal Production Facilities Continue to Bloom

Posted on 31 May 2015 at 13:24h in Business, Microalgae by

Heliae Development is proud to announce the ground breaking of a significant expansion project at its ten acre production plant in Gilbert, Arizona, USA.

Heliae has invested nearly $3 million in the design and construction of a new large enclosed photo bioreactor, which will further increase the company’s algal production capabilities. Construction began in May, 2015 and is expected to be operational in July, 2015.

Heliae’s breadth of experience and expertise allows for the design, engineering, and construction of the new facility to be managed almost completely in house.

“The process for building this new reactor is unique,” says Senior Project Manager Andrew Flood. “For this project, we are implementing innovative strategies learned from operations of our existing full-scale plant facilities,” adds John Cefola, Director of Engineering. “These innovations will result in significantly lowering our operating and utility costs, a key piece in the puzzle of successful algae production at scale. This expanded production platform will free up existing resources to dedicate to new research and product development efforts.”

Once online, the reactor is expected to significantly increase the volume of algae grown per month while simultaneously reducing water consumption. Heliae is driven to provide high value products to the microalgae industry and the additional capacity will allow increased production as well as expanding growth opportunities for other products within the nutraceutical and agricultural market space. This project is but one phase of a larger plan to expand production capabilities in the coming years.

Heliae specializes in the large scale growth of microalgae using multiple growth platforms for use in nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, agricultural and cosmetic products. Extensive existing facility infrastructure will be used to harvest and process algae grown in the new reactor.

The future is bright at Heliae. Look for announcements regarding the launch of the new system later this summer.