Just like all plants, each species of microalgae grows best under certain conditions. There is an ideal combination of temperature, nutrient mix, pH and other factors for each species.

Most microbes grow well in water. Microbes such as bacteria and fungi, which are grown commercially, are produced in water-filled, controlled bioreactors, otherwise known as fermenters.  The ability to grow bacteria and fungi in fermenters at large scale has existed for centuries.    In order to produce a product that is free of contamination and with consistent quality, the fermenter is closed, allowing a high degree of control over the growing environment.   However, none of the organisms successfully cultivated via fermentation has been photosynthetic, i.e., dependent on light to grow.  As a result, it is necessary only to ensure that the proper mix of nutrients is present in the medium with the culture promote growth.  Large volume fermenters are feasible because it is not necessary to deliver light throughout the culture medium. Huge industries in fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals rely on the fermentation process to make the products that they sell.

However, microalgae are photosynthetic.  Standard fermenters will not work for them.  Even if grow lights are placed inside the fermenter, only the top layer of algae will ìseeî the light and grow.  As they do they will actually shade the plants below them, preventing them from growing.  A pine forest, in which the canopy of branches above prevents plants from growing beneath, is a very good example of that ìshadingî effect.

Avoiding shading is relatively easy in a small (ten-gallon) container, since the depth is shallow enough to eliminate the shading.  However, commercial production must be done on a very large scale, where the medium is several feet deep, otherwise it is too expensive. Industrial fermenters usually hold thousands of gallons.  It was necessary for a commercial scale photobioreactor to achieve a similar size before commercial scale cultivation of microalgae could be feasible.

That is exactly what the MGM has accomplished.  It is a closed, controlled system that admits through its transparent walls the light that plants need to grow.  The depth of the nutrient medium is great enough to cause shading, but the entire volume of the water/nutrient mixture in which the microalgae grow is kept in constant circulation.  As a result, all of the organisms are exposed to enough light to grow at an optimal rate.  This innovative, patented system has enabled Mera Pharmaceuticals to open the door to commercial production of 30,000 species of microalgae, creating access to the valuable and beneficial compounds that they produce for the first time.