Researchers say they have developed a system that uses microalgae cultivated in partially treated wastewater as a feedstock for biomedicine and biofuel production, providing huge business opportunities.
It took a research team at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology five years to develop the microalgae cultivation and biodiesel production system, which won the top prize in the university category of a national energy innovation competition last year.
The technology has been attracting attention from the academic and business sectors both at home and abroad, said Tsai Wen-tien (蔡文田), director of the university’s Graduate Institute of Bioresources and the team leader.
Microalgae are a group of unicellular or simple multicellular fast-growing photosynthetic microorganisms that live on carbon dioxide which can come from different sources, including industrial exhaust gases and soluble carbonate salts, Tsai said.
The team cultivated the microalgae by coupling a wastewater treatment process with an algal photobioreactor for nutrient removal and biomass production, using enriched carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust gases, Tsai said.
Like other plants and organisms, microalgae use photosynthesis to turn light, carbon dioxide and a few nutrients into plant oils, carbohydrates and proteins, which make up the structure of their cells, Tsai added.
The technology allows the production of not only biodiesel, but also health supplements such as fish oil and cosmetic additives, as well as fishing lures and bait, researcher Lee Yu-ju (李育儒) said.
The cost of using wastewater and exhaust gases for the cultivation of microalgae is low, Lee said, adding that every 100 tonnes of wastewater can produce about 70kg of microalgae. Microalgae not only capture carbon dioxide, but also create prolific cultures which can be used in the production of air and water purifiers.
Some biotechnology companies are already engaged in the cultivation of microalgae on a large scale, Tsai said.
Expressing optimism about the outlook for green energy technology, university president Tai Chang-hsien (戴昌賢) said it could turn waste into an enormous business opportunity.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the