Category: Blog

Over 800 California-based businesses, including ABO member Sapphire Energy, have signed the Climate Declaration. It is “a business leader call to action that urges federal and state policymakers to seize economic opportunity of addressing climate change”. The declaration was announced on February 25th at the Climate Leadership Conference in San Diego, California.

California is at the forefront of moving the U.S. to a clean energy economy, such as with its landmark legislation, AB32. Such leadership is especially crucial in California where drought has created a national emergency and innovative solutions that also create jobs can’t come fast enough.

“Actively addressing climate change is the biggest economic opportunity of our time,” said Danny Kennedy, co-founder of Sungevity and author of Rooftop Revolution, How to Save Our Economy – and Our Planet – from Dirty Energy.

Sapphire Energy, as well as the rest of the algae industry believes in algae’s ability to address climate change challenges:

• Algae have the ability to take in larger amounts of CO₂ from emitting sources, such as fossil fuel plants, out of the air and turn it into useful, sustainable products.
• California and other parts of the U.S. impacted by drought have had to take drastic measures to protect fresh water sources. Algae grow in salt water to produce feeds, fuels, medicines, cosmetics, and in some cases can even create fresh water.
• Algae’s resilient qualities to climate change, and the value of the products that are possible, can be source of new job growth. A robust algae industry could employ thousands in California alone.

Learn more about how California businesses are actively addressing climate change here.

 

The AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo is renowned internationally for connecting science and business within the topics of fats, oils, surfactants, lipids, and materials.

This year, the event will be held in San Antonio, Texas, May 4-7, 2014.

We are enthused to see that one of the first events is the “Algal Products Expert Panel” on Monday, May 5, 2014 from 7:00-8:00am.

Kicking off the meetings on the topic of algae proves that the algae industry is growing into its own with the scientific and business communities’ understanding of its potential.

Attendees of the AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo have the opportunity to learn from a program featuring more than 600 presentations, make new connections, and explore the expo that includes products and services, international companies, governments, and academic institutions.

Early registration closes on February 28, 2014. Visit the registration page for more information.

Do you want to expose your business and research to the world’s largest gathering of thought leaders in the algae industry?

Then submit your abstract to the 2014 Algae Biomass Summit! This year the Summit will be in sunny San Diego, California, at the San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina, September 29 – October 2.

The ABO is now accepting abstracts for speaking and poster opportunities within the primary topic areas of:

• Biology
• Commercialization
• Engineering and Analysis
• Finance and Policy

Last year we had an unprecedented number of abstracts submitted and we are expecting even more submissions this year. First priority deadline is April 2, 2014.

Make sure to submit your abstract here before the deadline, and see you in San Diego!

 

The Algae Biomass Organization announced the publication of “Industrial Algae Measurements, Version 6.0” (IAM 6.0), a document that sets standards to measure and compare diverse algae industry operations.

IAM 6.0 is a collaboration of more than 30 industry experts and organizations providing a “methodology and common descriptive language that can be applied across a variety of algae operations, regardless of size, technology or end products.”

“The fast pace of development in the algae industry makes a standard-setting document like this absolutely necessary,” said Dr. Lieve Laurens, Chair of the ABO’s Technical Standards Committee and Senior Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “The descriptive language established by the ABO will help compare and quantify how diverse algae technologies are performing, and how they measure up at commercial production scale. This can help give information to commercial and industrial groups and could be considered an operator’s manual for building the algae industry. The document provides references and resources for anyone looking into regulatory, characterization, and certification routes for biofuels and bioproducts.”

The IAM 6.0 document will be a crucial reference as companies develop and improve new technologies to create fuels, feeds, nutritional supplements, biochemical and other products from algae.

What may soon be considered “an operator’s manual for building the algae industry” is available here as a free download.

More information about IAM 6.0 can be found in this press release.

 

On Tuesday the U.S. Senate passed a farm bill that we expect will soon be signed by President Obama. This bill is the result of hard negotiations among members of Congress.

• The bill will allow algae projects to be eligible for support through the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) for establishment and maintenance of algae crops.  Last year, the Senate had passed a farm bill which explicitly excluded algae from crop establishment and maintenance support under BCAP.
• $881 million of mandatory funding was included in versions of the bill passed by both the House and the Senate. This language will ensure that programs under the Energy Title including BCAP, the Biorefinery Assistance Program, the Biomass R&D Program, and the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels receive funding.
• The Biorefinery Assistance Program is extended beyond fuel, and will now apply to renewable chemicals and biobased products as well. This will be welcomed news for those looking to produce the full range of algae-derived products.
• Finally, the bill extends the Non-Insured Crop Assistance Program (NAP) to energy crops. Currently NAP only covers crops grown for food, feed and fiber.

The ABO supported all of these changes, and the fact that they appear in the final legislation represents a significant accomplishment for the organization, and an industry working to turn algae into a new source of renewable fuels, feed, bioplastics and other products.

We would like to thank all who helped keep Congress informed about the positive benefits each of these changes can bring. You have helped the algae industry take a significant step forward.

We look forward to building on today’s success!