By Kari Williamson

Commercial release is slated for the first half of 2012, for the low energy, chemical-free, continuous flow 'wet harvest' system, said to have the potential to remove up to 90% of the initial water volume.

"We are continuing to scale up our technology at MBD's pilot site in Australia," says Bill Charneski, OriginOil Senior Director of Product Engineering. "Now, everything we have learned is going into a standardised entry-level system to help the worldwide algae industry meet the high demand for sustainable, low-cost algae production."

Ken Reynolds, OriginOil's Vice President of Marketing, adds: "Our Algae Appliance can process as little as two liters per minute, which is perfect for a small research installation.

"But it is versatile enough to handle up to ten times that rate, serving capacities of 100,000 litres and more. And of course we'll make it easy for our customers to upgrade all the way to production scale.”