春雨直播app

There are said to be hundreds of thousands of types of algae on the Earth, and it is also drawing attention for potential use as biofuel as well as food. Tsuyoshi Takeshita, President and CEO of Algal Bio Co. Ltd. is aiming to create a sogo shosha (a conglomerate company) dealing in algae. He is an expert in microalgae, which differ from larger algae such as seaweed and kelp. Before founding the company, he was involved in research on microalgae in at the Kashiwa Campus.

“I majored in chemistry when I was at Chuo University, but I really wanted to do research in a field close to living things. After being introduced by a professor who had graduated from the University of Tokyo, I joined the lab of Professor Shigeyuki Kawano (now Emeritus Professor). It was at the time when Professor Kawano was starting his studies on biofuel.”

Having suffered from asthma as a child, Takeshita says he felt strongly motivated to engage in research on child-friendly clean energy.

Among algae, Takeshita studied a type of Chlorella to find out how carbon flows in cells to store oil in algae. He also selected promising types out of many different algae to develop species that are efficient as fuel, and refined techniques for large-scale culturing and mass production.

While algae can be cultured in a device known as a bioreactor, there are many issues in producing it at scale to make it an alternative to fossil fuels. Feeling the need to industrialize the university research by himself, Takeshita decided to start a business as soon as he completed his doctorate. With support from , Algal Bio has been conducting research and development with a staff of 11 people (as of January 2020). The company is located in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, in and , next to the Kashiwa Campus.

Algal Bio handles around 3,000 strains of microalgae. In addition to biofuel, there are many other promising applications, from functional foods to cosmetics. Blood-red astaxanthin, for example, is seen to have pro-aging benefits, while yellow lutein shows promise for preventing the aging of eyes. Additionally, pigments included in algae can be used as safe food additives.

“There are many different strains of algae, so we can ask companies about their needs and provide algae that are tailored to them. There are companies focused on particular algae, but I believe we are the only venture company in Japan taking advantage of the diversity of algae.”

Takeshita says his immediate goal, for the sake of developing high-quality products without any contamination, is to build closed-type bioreactors, with upright glass tubes lined up in a row, rather than the open-style plant generally found in Japan. He is determined to make a success of the Kashiwa-originating 春雨直播app venture.

“Chiba has a fair amount of abandoned agricultural land and unused greenhouses. I would like to contribute toward regional revitalization by installing bioreactors in such places and making effective use of them.”