ALGAE CELLS STAY INTACT AND UNDAMAGED

Tomalgae is a Belgian company with a production- and testing facility in the Netherlands where they produce high quality diatoms. For them it is extremely important that the diatoms are havested undamaged. Only then do the high value components inside the cell wall remain available.

A unique feature of diatom cells is that they are encased within a siliceous exoskeleton (hydrated silicon dioxide) called a frustule. The frustule is very fragile. Before testing with the Evodos Dynamic Settlers Tomalgae had not found a harvesting method where the diatom cells could be harvested in one piece.

diatoms paste with evodos dewatering harvesting

“Recently I repeatedly had a chance to process large volums of thalassiosiroid diatoms (Diatom, taxonomic order Thalassiosirales) using the Evodos Dynamic Settler”, says Dr. Victor Chepurnov of Tomalgae. The results of these tests proved to be uniformly identical: the perfect quality of concentrated microalgal (diatom) paste – no diatom cells were detected that exhibited any signs of mechanical damage. The diatoms belong to one of the most economically important groups of algae”, he said. “For various applications, it is often very important that while algae cultures are concentrated via centrifugation, the cells are not damaged and keep their integrity after the processing. The siliceous exoskeleton of diatom cells is extremely fragile. Traditional methods of centrifugation typically bring serious damage to the cells – breaking or opening their frustules – that usually dramatically reduces the quality (and commercial value) of the microalgal biomass obtained”.