mbd energy, page-9

alpha

A few impressions.
With the algaetec design, the land location is so non-specific, it could be urban/industrial, it could be rural the main factors are just so attractively basic: water supply and sunlight. The ability to stack means concentration of effort which diminishes the costs where land is at a premium.

My understanding is that with aquaculture there is more emphasis on choosing an appropriate location for the fish, and you have the interface with the environment, with disease and contamination risk-management issues. A totally enclosed artificial aquaculture system, which is much higher maintenance has had mixed success especially with more sensitive breeds like abalone, and you still have the risks (let's not talk about diseased water releases into the sea, will we?). The only way to fully insure against such risks IMO would be to heat to sterilisation level, then cool the discharged water, then release. They can do it with bilge water from ships but motivation is somehow lacking. I have a regulation bias on these issues.

I don't think algae is anywhere near as complex, it is a fully integrated system by all appearances and these guys have years of experience with it. Choosing the appropriate algae is apparently key.

Integrating the system into a working whole remains to be demonstrated of course and no doubt there will be plenty of fine tuning. Water purity might cause problems for instance in China.

Temperature regulation is a unknown, and there may well be additional start-up costs in neutralising variations in climatic conditions, and needing more infrastructure to be able to recruit sunlight. Urban areas will be more polluted and have diffuse sunlight. I understand some people in industrialised areas of China have never seen the sun properly.

But it's a big country there will be locations. They are more acutely aware of climate change. If they move on this technology, IMO they will really move in a big way. Of course, enforcing intellectual property in China can be fun. If they decide to appropriate your technology and not pay for it, or pay only partially... good luck. There are stories about the legal system, but it could have improved. The Americans claim that if IP was appropriately paid for their balance of payments with China would look considerably different. It's a big ongoing issue. Therefore I don't see this as risk free. It's an interesting field and these are really interesting developments.

I hope someone from HC is going to Nowra report back on the opening and demonstration plant on the 2nd Aug. Going insane with curiosity...

cheers

DV