Driven by an unrelenting desire to harness the extraordinary capacity of microalgae to solve many global challenges, Symbiotic EnviroTek Inc., was founded in 2008 with the goal to create an algae growth system that is energy efficient, commercially scalable, and able to operate independently in all weather extremes.

It all started in 2008 with basic and applied research, laboratory studies, prototype development, and testing, and in the spring of 2010, Symbiotic carried out a three-month field trial to study the capacity of its first commercial-scale prototype, at growing microalgae in the colder and low natural light conditions of Calgary, Alberta. Symbiotic used its 106m3 photobioreactor prototype for this study with overwhelmingly successful results that exceeded the threshold for continued development.

Symbiotic has since worked with a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, microbiologists, biochemists, photonics scientists, and business professionals to refine and optimize the design. Forming collaborations across Canada with academic and relevant research institutions, with the focus primarily on technology optimization. The results of these collaborations culminated in several successful developmental milestones, and from their combined efforts, the MAC-B™ system, short for Modular Algae Cultivation Biofield™ was born.