Aquaflow Enters Major Chinese Algal Venture

Aquaflow Enters Major Chinese Algal Technology Venture

Kiwi clean tech company reports ‘amazing’ global interest in recent months -
now involved in evaluating 40 projects across four continents

BLENHEIM, NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand-based Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation announced today that it has engaged with Greenleaf Environmental of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province in China to investigate suitable sites in China for Aquaflow’s world-first, next generation algae technology.

“This is a significant breakthrough as Sichuan is a leading clean technology centre and we believe Aquaflow is the first company of its kind to move into the region,” says Aquaflow director, Nick Gerritsen.

Greenleaf Environmental managing director Gavin Crombie has also hailed the engagement as a key milestone for this innovative technology.

“This technology can, potentially, remediate contaminated water, and produce green crude oil found within these algae-infested waters,” comments Greenleaf’s director of engineering, William Gormley.

Gerritsen says Aquaflow has had ‘amazing’, unsolicited interest in recent months and the company is now evaluating more than 40 project opportunities across four continents, not including license and manufactured sales interest.

“The level of interest is ‘mind boggling’. We believe it’s because Aquaflow sits slap-dab on the cusp of two of the most fundamental issues that the world faces – fresh water and renewable fuels and chemicals.

“With the global water market currently sitting at USD $522 billion and forecast to double in the next five years, it’s no wonder other companies are looking at us,” comments Gerritsen.

He says the company is working through the project interest. It will prioritise near term opportunities to set up the first series of pilots offshore.

Little did Aquaflow realise when it started in 2005 that harvesting micro-algae from waste water discharge flows would open up a powerful additional hedge for the company.

Gerritsen says the focus on wild or naturally-occurring algae and the inherent low cost of this biomass feedstock places Aquaflow’s fuels and chemicals’ economics ahead of other companies who need to introduce other elements, such as CO2, to make their propositions viable.

In addition, Aquaflow’s system plugs into an existing infrastructure removing the upfront capital and time expense associated with building high rate ponds and intensive bio-reactor systems.

Wild algae grow in wastewater and are continuously harvested, one of the great benefits of algae over other land based crops, and the process doesn’t compete with food crops or agricultural land.

www.aquaflowgroup.com

ENDS

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