Microalgae Farm CEO Park Shin-ho expects that the world will pay more attention to microalgae as a source of renewable energy due to rising oil prices and concern about the safety of nuclear power plants.

The company, based in North Chungcheong Province, is the only Korean agricultural firm that grows freshwater microalgae. The company said it had passed tests conducted by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology on both lipid content and lipid productivity at the same time in February last year.

CEO Park painted a rosy outlook for the new energy source, pointing to U.S. President Barack Obama’s remarks last year that he would promote fuel from microalgae as a way to reduce reliance on oil by 17 percent.

Microalgae are a composition of organisms cultivated using atmospheric or underwater carbon dioxide and water, with currently over 300,000 kinds known to be in distribution. Microalgae have the merit of high flexibility in cultivation and grow better than palm oil.

Company officials said while palm oil produced 20 tons of oil annually from 270 trees grown on 2 hectares, microalgae produced 20 tons of oil daily from 2,000 cultivation containers over the same area.

“In addition to this, microalgae can be the answer to the ‘cap-and-trade’ market through securing carbon trading, and if compulsory supply of new renewable energies expands in the future, we will be able to lead the international carbon finance market,” Park said. He added that microalgae cultivation might settle as a new income source for farmers in the age of free trade agreements.

The market size for biodiesel and biogas is expected to grow to 4.52 trillion won ($4.02 billion) by 2020 from around 1.31 trillion won in 2012, he said. 

By Choi In-jeong, Intern reporter
(injeongchoi@heraldcorp.com)