Mag. Pharm. Emil Tiholov:
We exported seaweed
by plane to Japan and GFR!
Their mass increased 2 to 3 times in one day!
- Emil, please tell us about the BAS base in Rupite, where you were director.
- In 1981, Prof. Hristo Dilov invited me to take over the base in Rupite because he
They needed a chemical technologist like me. He told me that there would be a competition for a research assistant, that I should participate and if I won, I could head the base. This was in 1982. In April I went to Rupite, I stayed there for a year, because they called me... However, I had a commitment to look after the base for 5 years, which I did.
Together with colleagues, we built the halls, equipped them, developed the technology for extracting the beneficial ingredients from algae. We cultivated mainly Scenedesmus cutos, but later I convinced them to remove another strain that had settled in the culture on its own. It was Scenedesmus acuminatos. We started growing it because it was wild and much more hardy - it never got sick. We also experimented with chlorella and the now-famous spirulina.
- Why was the laboratory closed?
- Because of the greed of the people from the Bandage Factory in Sandanski. They plaited prof.
Dilov and usurped the base, but then they couldn't handle it. Then they organized
revision committee to return it to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and I was elected as a member of this committee, but
I was never made to do any work. I don't think the committee did any work at all.
And so, this wonderful base and this wonderful undertaking sink into oblivion.
- Is it true that you exported seaweed products to Japan?
- Yes, to Japan and to the GFR. We exported dried scenedesmus using a great technology developed by the Czechs and Prof. Assen Gubev. The final product was a dried mush, which we scooped into tins and exported by plane.
- Did you grow the microalgae in the springs?
- No, we set up installations with concrete platforms with a 3 percent slope, in which there are grates, so that the water-algae slurry flows very slowly. We had installations of 50, 100 and 250 square meters, on which we cultivated microalgae. In the morning, if we put in, say, 10 kg of microalgae, in the evening we would get 20-25 kg. We are talking about incredible growth. No plant can achieve such growth. We put everything that was in excess in separators, then we concentrated it to a certain percentage of dry matter, fed it into a spray dryer, which sprays water like a sprayer and then hot air is released in the countercurrent, so in this cyclone, by the time the algae hit the bottom, they are already dried. Then they are packaged, for
to get on the plane.
- Why did you build the Rupite base?
- Rupite is the best place for algae. I'm sure there's no other place like it in the world! First, the strong sun. This can sometimes be a problem, because when the algae suspension overheats, the unicellular algae die. But if they cool down - by dropping through the bars - they give a great yield.
The second advantage is that the mineral water, which is 74 degrees, has a high CO2 content. We extracted this CO2 on site, stored it and fed it into the algae suspension so that the suspension was saturated and this CO2, through photosynthesis, was absorbed and the algae multiplied up to 2-3 times a day. Great! I could have stayed there for the rest of my life, I loved it so much. My heart is still there to this day.
- What's happening at the base today?
- Everything is destroyed, locked, overgrown, the buildings look like Hiroshima... How someone could let something so successful perish, I can't understand. Lack of constructive thinking, complete - I don't like the word carelessness - that's why I'll say irresponsibility.
- Since we were exporting to Japan, the country of seaweed, that must mean that our products were very good?
- We were number one, no one else could do several tons at once. Only we could.