page_title: Algaculture
section_title: Growing algae
hierarchical_section_title: Algaculture / Growing, harvesting, and processing algae / Growing algae
context_page_description: Algaculture is a form of aquaculture involving the farming of species of algae.
  The majority of algae that are intentionally cultivated fall into the category of microalgae. Macroalgae, commonly known as seaweed, also have many commercial and industrial uses, but due to their size and the specific requirements of the environment in which they need to grow, they do not lend themselves as readily to cultivation.
  Commercial and industrial algae cultivation has numerous uses, including production of food ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids or natural food colorants and dyes, food, fertilizer, bioplastics, chemical feedstock, pharmaceuticals, and algal fuel, and can also be used as a means of pollution control.
  Global production of farmed aquatic plants, overwhelmingly dominated by seaweeds, grew in output volume from 13.5 million tonnes in 1995 to just over 30 million tonnes in 2016.
context_section_description: Water, carbon dioxide, minerals and light are all important factors in cultivation, and different algae have different requirements. The basic reaction for algae growth in water is carbon dioxide + light energy + water = glucose + oxygen + water.  This is called autotrophic growth.  It is also possible to grow certain types of algae without light, these types of algae consume sugars (such as glucose). This is known as heterotrophic growth.
caption: Microalgae is used to culture brine shrimp, which produce dormant eggs (pictured). The eggs can then be hatched on demand and fed to cultured fish larvae and crustaceans.
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