Diatom Algae in China

http://sztqb.sznews.com/html/2010-01/13/content_928452.htm

Shenzhen local newsper makes a featured report about Prof Jawkai Wang's project to use Diatom Algae for bioremediation of lakes and for biodiesel.

Important facts in the report:

1. The government of Kunming city, Yunnan province reached an agreement with Wang’s company to start the polution treatment project of Dianchi lake this year. At present, the government of Kunming city plans to fund 1.5 million yuan and will give another 18 million yuan six months later when the feasibility report is finished.

2. After the project in Dianchi lake, he will probably take part in the polution treatment of Taihu laike.

3. He explained to the reporter about the principles of pollution treatment with microalgae as follows:

“The reason why waters are polluted is because there too many organic nitrogen, phosphorus etc in the lake, which are in fact “fertilizers”. By using controllable algae to eat up these fertilizers, the waters can be cleaned. Conventional open-pond cultivation of algae is liable to invasion of foreign algae species, resulting in secondary pollution. Through accurate control of the nutritional salts in the waters, especially dissolvable silica, the grow rate of diatoms can be maximized so that diatoms are significantly predominant over other foreign algae species, making the diatom culturing fluid less susceptible to pollution from foreign algae species.

4. He estimates that the dry algae yield in his project will reach 270 tons per hectare per year based on his maximum daily yield, as compared to the conventional yield of only 10-20 tons per hectare per year. And the oil content in the diatom will be up to 24%.