ALGICEL

ALGICEL was created within the industry and the university as a way to gather and combine these two different worlds, thereby enhancing mutual understanding in order to generate value in the field of biotechnology.

From this symbiosis two patents were originated and a start-up to an industrial unit dedicated to the intensive production of microalgae among which stands out Haematococcus pluvialis that is the living organism with the greater capacity for the production of Astaxanthin. This substance belongs to the group of xanthophylls carotenoids and it’s a natural pigment used for example for muscle colouring in salmon from aquaculture.

It has been growing in importance and commercial interest due to its properties, particularly the high antioxidant activity, but also other attributes of pharmaceutical order, nutritional and cosmetic.

ALGICEL has also developed technology dedicated to microalgal growing such as photobioreactors and various other accessories. It specialized in the process of phase separation solid / liquid in aqueous medium rich in microalgae and cyanobacteria and consequently has developed technologies to clean up polluted eutrophic inland water bodies (water that is too rich in nutrients and organic matter with increasing primary productivity).

ALGICEL took advantage of the true natural laboratory that constitutes the Azores Islands lakes which are suffering from this environmental problem.