Montana’s Summer of Algae

Last month the 2013 Summer of Algae reached into the labs of Montana State University.

Mark Allen (ABO Chairman and President) and Rocco Fiato from Accelergy Corporation along with Dr. Yuhan Sun from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese National Academy of Sciences visited the Center for Biofilm Engineering and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Montana State University (Bozeman, MT) on September 17^th, 2013.

MSU hosts included Drs. Richard Macur, Robert Gardner, Keith Cooksey, Brent Peyton and Robin Gerlach.

The visit focused on MSU’s current work on the use of cyanobacteria for biofertilizer production as well as other algal biomass and bioproduct research and development activities at MSU.

MSU showcased its work on phototroph-based biofertilizer production, the use of multiple nutrient and chemical stresses to increase algal lipid production, as well as links between algal biomass production and carbon capture, reuse and sequestration technologies.

The team at MSU sent the following pictures of the tour:

M. Allen, R. Fiato and Y. Sun in front of tubular photobioreactors

K. Cooksey, M. Allen, R. Gardner, R. Fiato, Y. Sun and R. Macur in front of 200L algal raceways

M. Allen, Y. Sun, K. Cooksey, R. Fiato, R. Macur and R. Gerlach in front of plants grown in cyanobacteria-fertilized soil

The Summer of Algae culminated this week at the Algae Biomass Summit with a tour of Algenol’s facilities in Florida. Look for a report on that event soon.