Open ponds are slow and easily contaminated. The platform grows characterized strains in a fully enclosed vertical tube photobioreactor (vPBR). pH sensors trigger precise injection of liquefied CO2 only when the culture needs it (injecting around pH 8.5, stopping near 5.6), so the algae are fed carbon at exactly the right moments.
Air-lift micro-bubbles keep the cells circulating so they never form biofilms on the tube walls, and the sealed design blocks outside contamination, letting the system run continuously, 365 days a year, on a zero-waste harvest that draws off a share of the culture every day. The result is a step change in output: a 66 percent increase in daily biomass, and a Sacheon-scale productivity of 275 kg per square meter per year, versus 3 to 20 for open ponds.
+66%
Daily biomass
275 kg/m²/yr
Productivity
3–20 kg/m²/yr
Open ponds
365 days/yr
Uptime
Key takeaways
- →A sealed vertical photobioreactor feeds CO2 on pH-sensor demand.
- →Micro-bubble circulation prevents biofilm and contamination.
- →Output jumps 66%, reaching 275 kg/m²/yr at Sacheon scale.
Educational material, framed as general science. It describes how the platform and its compounds work; it is not medical advice and makes no disease-treatment claims.