ABO Blog

It’s been a long and arduous process, but our persistence is paying off. Today, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) introduced new legislation to prioritize research and development of carbon utilization technologies under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy program.

The bill (S. 1282) would add “Improving the conversion, use, and storage of CO₂ produced from fossil fuels” to the list of DOE Fossil Energy R&D objectives under Section 961(a) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16512(b)).

The bill is recognition of the growing importance of algae and other technologies that can convert captured CO₂ to fuels, chemicals and other products.

“Algae and other biological carbon utilization platforms are under development or demonstration in more than 30 states, and the inclusion of carbon utilization as an R&D priority for DOE’s Fossil Energy program will help further link these projects with fossil energy generators to optimize fossil carbon conversion and speed commercial deployment.

Algae and other similar biological platforms have shown exceptional ability in pilot and demonstration projects throughout the country to convert CO₂ into low-carbon advanced biofuels, plastics, fish and animal feed, and even fertilizer.

ABO’s Executive Director Matt Carr and executives from many member companies have spoken with dozens of members of Congress in the past year and have received bi-partisan support for this common sense approach to emissions reductions. We look forward to seeing the proposal adopted.

The algae industry is becoming more global than ever, and those looking to European markets may want to check out the 23rd European Biomass Conference & Exhibition (EUBCE) in Vienna next month.

The EUBCE covers the entire value chain of biomass to conduct business, to network, and to present and discuss the latest developments and innovations.

The EUBCE is supported by European and international organizations such as the European Commission, UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Natural Sciences Sector, EUBIA – the European Biomass Industry Association, WCRE – the World Council for Renewable Energy and further organisations.

A variety of registration packages are available, and early bird rates begin to expire May 15th!

ABO’s executive director Matt Carr will be speaking at Bioenergy 2015, during the “Market and Policy Overview” plenary session.

You can Register here for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office eighth annual conference. Bioenergy 2015: Opportunities in a Changing Energy Landscape is taking place June 23–24, 2015 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. This year’s event, co-hosted with the Clean Energy Research and Education Foundation, will be a tremendous opportunity to discuss critical bioenergy issues including impacts of changing oil prices, future of the Renewable Fuel Standard, algae-based biofuels, sustainability, bioenergy markets, among others.

University of California San Diego scientists recently used algal oil as the raw material for the world’s first algae surfboard. Check out this video to learn why algae are an ideal source for materials like this, and countless other products:

You can read more about this collaboration in this post from the Department of Energy.

What if we could trap greenhouse gases in a way that almost immediately pays for itself? Dozens of Algae Biomass Organization members are developing the technology to do just that.

Check out the story of one Maryland company, HY-TEK Bio, that is using bioreactors to produce algae at a wastewater treatment plant. Once they are ready to go to commercial scale HY-TEK aims to capture carbon dioxide usually released by power plants, landfills and other industrial facilities, and use it to grow algae for use in all sorts of products, such as biofuels, nutritional supplements and food additives.

Check out Jonathan Wilson’s report at the WAMU website.