Aban has established a state-of-the-art R&D facility in 2 acres at Thandalam outside Chennai, for conducting basic and applied research on algae. Aban’s Biotechnology lab has identified and characterized a host of elite strains of marine and fresh water algae. Apart from a fully equipped biotech lab, Aban has established a polyhouse facility housing 6 all-weather FRP lined concrete raceway ponds with a total surface area of 162 m2 and volumetric capacity of 32000L and 4 portable 1m2 FRP raceway ponds with a volumetric capacity of 800 L. This Algal Research facility is capable of producing 1.5 tons of algal biomass and 300-400 L of crude algal oil per year. Aban’s research efforts in collaboration with University of Madras have resulted in the development of advanced mass cultivation techniques for fresh and marine algal strains in open ponds. The FRP lined raceway pond system developed by Aban is unique in the world for growing marine and freshwater algae. Aban is also working on a completely purpose built, low-energy footprint, algae harvesting unit using a unique electroclarification technology.

Algae research lab

Major Equipments

Eutech pH and EC/TDS/Salinity meters Technico Hot air oven Shimadzu UV Vis Spectrophotometer

Hach Spectrophotometer Remi Centrifuge Clean Air Laminar airflow chambers

Shimadzu digital balance Mettler Moisture meter Olympus compound microscope

Soxhlet apparatus Technico Muffle furnace

Algae pilot plant

500 m2 polyhouse

Four 1 m2 portable FRP raceway ponds with paddle wheel aerators

Two 1m2 concrete FRP lined raceway ponds with paddle wheel aerators Two 10m2 concrete FRP lined raceway ponds with paddle wheel aerators

One 20 m2 concrete FRP lined raceway pond with paddle wheel One 120 m2 concrete FRP lined raceway pond with paddle wheel       Raceway pond

3m Carbonation columns for raceway ponds Automatic CO2 based Raceway pond pH controllers Filter press 1 m3 anaerobic digestion unit