Today at the 2015 Algae Biomass Summit, XPRIZE made an exciting announcement. They’ve launched the $20 Million Carbon XPRIZE, a competition that will incentivize breakthroughs to convert our current liability of CO2 emissions into useful products.
ABO has been saying for years that we should think of CO2 as an opportunity, not a problem. Because algae consume CO2 as they grow, our industry needs all the CO2 it can get. With the right technologies, we can remove CO2 from the air and convert it into a range of products, including: fuels, animal feed, fertilizers, chemicals, plastics and other valuable products. XPRIZE recognizes the opportunity to re-use carbon, and we expect algae to be well positioned to win the prize!
Anyone can register to compete, from now through March 2016. The competition will be structured as a two-track prize, with one track focused on testing technologies at a coal power plant, and the other focused on testing technologies at a natural gas power plant. The winning teams will convert the most CO2 into products with the highest net value and the smallest environmental impact. To learn more about this amazing opportunity, visit the prize website at http://carbon.xprize.org.