Category: Blog

Yesterday, the Algae Biomass Organization showcased its upcoming biology track for the Algae Biomass Summit coming up September 30^th-October 3^rd in Orlando, Florida. The biology-related highlights of the event include:

• Cultivation Ecology
  • Robert McBride, Sapphire Energy Inc.
  • Open Algae Pond Ecology

• Photosynthesis and CO2 Fixation
  • Shaun Bailey, Director, Photosynthesis Research, Synthetic Genomics International
  • Global Transcriptional Regulators of the Photo-Acclimation Response to Irradiance

• Algal Strain Development
  • Matthew Saunders, Group Leader, Evolutionary Engineering, Sapphire Energy Inc.
  • Microalgae Strain-Improvement by Evolutionary Engineering for Superior Biofuels Production

• Physiological Response to Cultivation Conditions
  • Halil Berberoglu, University of Texas at Austin
  • Physico-chemical Surface Properties of Algae and Cell-Surface Interactions

When describing the event, Dr. Al Darzins, who will chair the Summit’s Biology track, said “The breath of expertise demonstrated by this year’s Summit biology track speakers is truly outstanding.” Continuing, he explains how the event “…can help bring cost-effective algal-based products to the commercial marketplace.” (You can find the full press release here.)

Countdown to early registration for the summit has begun, so make sure you register before August 19^th to take advantage of the early-bird special.

And don’t forget, ABO members get a discount!

One of the big questions about President Obama’s recently announced intent to curb CO₂ emissions is how industrial emitters will be required to make reductions. Carbon Capture and Sequestration methods are one way, but these are costly and have yet to be proven to work at scale.

The good news is that there’s another way. Instead of treating CO₂ as waste – something to be discarded – we should be thinking of it as valuable.

The algae industry is poised to be a major consumer of waste CO₂, providing a novel way for industrial emitters to not only reduce emissions, but create a new source of revenue.

This was the topic for ABO’s July 25 webinar: CO₂ and Algae Production.

This recording of the webinar’s presentations begins with an update from Mike Evans at K&L Gates in Washington DC on the policy landscape for treating waste CO₂ as an input, rather than as threat.

Doug Durst at Duke Energy then discusses a project his company is undertaking with the University of Kentucky to capture CO₂ from power generation for use in algae cultivation.

Finally Tim Burns, President and CEO at BioProcess Algae discusses how his company is reusing CO₂ from an ethanol plant to grow algae that is harvested to create animal feed and other food products in Shenandoah, Iowa.

Mary Rosenthal, ABO’s executive director, moderates a Q&A session following the presentations.

The algae industry is moving faster than many people suspect. To help demonstrate how far along so many of ABO’s members are we  recently created the Algae Industry Project Book, an illustrated guide of some of the most advanced algae facilities in the United States.

Inside you’ll find brief company descriptions and photos that demonstrate the impressive progress of the algae industry, as well as the products, jobs and other benefits we are creating.

It’s a great resource for anybody that needs to get up to speed quickly on algae’s potential to provide a sustainable source of fuels, feed, chemicals and countless other products.

As these projects progress, and as more come online, we will be adding updates to the book. If you are an ABO member with new progress to report don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Download a copy of the Algae Industry Project Book (PDF) and share it with your networks today.

All too often during the summer months algae can make a bad name for itself. Lakes across the country are filled with algal blooms that can keep swimmers out, and kill sea-life within. But Reasearchers at the University of Buffalo are studying ways to remove the algae and turn it into biofuels and fertilizer.

Their system uses algae beds to remove excess nutrients from the lake, and can simultaneously improve water quality and create useful products. From Domestic Fuels:

Funded by a $30,000 Rochester Institute of Technology grant, [David] Blersch, an environmental engineer at the University at Buffalo, and his students built a system that pumps water ashore down two, 40-foot-long flumes.

The water is recycled into the lake but it leaves behind microscopic cells that form miniature algae blooms. Blersch vacuums the algae and bottles samples to study. He is creating a database that will help scientists, government, industry and others gauge the algae’s potential uses.

Students at Buffalo have been able to learn and explore the potential that algae holds.

From University of Buffalo News Center:

“This research is really a unique opportunity to examine issues that delve into sustainable bioenergy and how we can use innovative technology to improve our waterways,” said Byrley, who this fall will attend the University of California, Riverside, on a full scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree in chemical and environmental engineering.

Algae once again turn our burdensome waste into useful products.

ABO’s executive director Mary Rosenthal chimes in today over at Biofuels Digest on some of the recent advertisements that oppose policies to advance renewable fuel technologies in the United States:

Halloween is not for another 3 months, but the costumes and scare tactics are already out in the form of a new ad campaign from the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The goal of the ad campaign? To try to generate grassroots demand among the American public to call for the repeal of the RFS.  Now, if you’re like me, you know an awful lot about biofuels policies and regulations. But ask your neighbor what the RFS stands for and I’ll bet you a tank of gas that he or she won’t know what you’re talking about.

Read the rest of Mary’s column in Biofuels Digest.