Biolight operates a 40-acre algae research center in Imperial Valley, California, with open algae cultivation ponds having a total capacity of 8 million gallons. The facility includes the water, power and infrastructure to operate the ponds, and a 13,000 square foot building hosting laboratories, processing facilities, offices and warehouse space. Seven 150-gallon sun-tube photobioreactors are located indoors. Current production capability is 660 pounds per day of dried algae biomass with seven percent or less moisture content, and can be expanded to 2,200 pounds per day (one metric ton per day) using existing ponds and infrastructure. The ponds were designed by Dr. William Oswald of Berkley, renowned as one of the “fathers” of algae production, and their design has been replicated around the world. Biolight grows a variety of green algae and blue-green algae strains in 42 separate ponds of various sizes, ranging from sixteen 100 gallon ponds to seven 240,000 gallon ponds.
