Facilities
At Cal-CAB's core in UC San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, there is over 33,000 square feet of laboratory space, a growth room, and a pilot scale Algae Research & Development facility.
Algae Growth Room
The algae growth room is where strains of algae are tested and grown. The facility is HEPA filtered, fully illuminated and temperature regulated to control the environmental factors during growth. Algae are grown as cultures in growth plates, flasks, and larger carboys for a range of different research projects.
Algae Research & Development Facility
At the UC San Diego Biology Field Station, Cal-CAB operates an Algae R&D Facility where algae growth systems and methods are tested at a larger, pre-commercial scale. This facility includes two greenhouses with racks for a capacity of 96 hanging 100-L plastic bag photobioreactors, 18 outdoor 1,000-L mini-ponds equipped with automated pH monitoring and CO2 input systems (8 designed with containment for GMO applications), two 30-ft 8,000-L raceway ponds with forced-air lifters, a harvesting station with four 900-L conical tanks, mobile pumps, and a wet laboratory for media preparation, culture analysis, and equipment fabrication. There is also a wet lab on site for culture preparation and sample analysis.
If you are interested in visiting, please contact calcab@ucsd.edu to schedule a tour. The facility is not a public facility, so walk-in tour requests will not be accommodated.
