Algae research has become a hot topic within the international community, grabbing the attention of investors, researchers and governments from around the world.
Here’s a short summary of international algae developments from the past week:
China
At Hong Kong’s Open University, Professor Ho Kin-chung hopes to secure HK$10 million from the Chinese government’s Innovation and Technology Fund to support research on a new technology that would use algae to produce energy, purify water and reduce waste.
“Just give me a bay, and we can grow them (algae) on a large scale and economically,” explains Ho.
A top engineer from the U.S. and a Chinese mainland farmer are offering resources to set up test algae farms. The Chinese government hopes technologies like this will “diversify and boost economic development”.
India
Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings (RIIHL), India’s largest private sector enterprise, signed subscription, technical, and supply agreements with Algae. Tec LTd., US and Australia based company. A new algae biofuels facility will be built in India and eventually expand through Asia to meet increasing demands for fuels.
Japan
In Japan, a unit of IHI Corp. cut the cost of producing oil from algae that can be used for jet fuel, materials for plastic, and cosmetics. In the future, they hope to grow algae near thermal power stations to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted.
These are all reminders that, while the U.S. may be home to some extremely advanced projects, great progress is being made within the international space for algae as well.