GEA and algae
Having grown the algae, it is only of any value if it can be separated from the medium – water – that it is growing in. This process is called harvesting, and GEA Westfalia Separator, part of GEA Mechanical Equipment, has been supplying centrifuges for concentrating algae for almost half a century.
But the company has now designed a new generation of separators specifically for algae biotechnology. These separators can be used for processing small to medium capacities of farmed algae suspension (up to 24,000 liters an hour), providing gentle treatment for the sensitive cells and producing very high levels of dry matter. With specially developed classification decanters, GEA Westfalia Separator can now selectively separate special high-quality dyestuffs from the algae or even extrinsic algae from the original algae culture.
GEA Niro Soavi supplies homogenizers used in algae processing, while both GEA Niro and GEA Barr-Rosin supply varieties of equipment for drying algae. These dryers are used in the manufacture of products such as carrageenan, alginates and agar that in turn find applications in medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, and very widely in the food and cosmetics industries where they are used as thickening agents.