Blog – Page 26

Algae for Food & Feed Webinar Series

Register Now for Oct. 1 Webinar – Free

The Future of Algae for Food & Feed (FAFF) initiative was created as an engine for innovation and collaboration to accelerate the development of cost competitive algae-based food and feed products in the global marketplace

FAFF works to facilitate the development of products that will encourage consumers to make sustainable food choices through three strategic initiatives:

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
REGULATORY SUPPORT
EDUCATION AND MARKETING

Join Us for Our 2019 Fall Webinar Series Presented in Partnership With:

Webinars include:

Food and Dietary Supplement Regulations: Application to Algal-based Ingredient Commercialization
Tuesday, October 1, 2019 / 12:00p PT

Algal-based Ingredients: Navigating a Complex Regulatory Environment for Animal Feed Uses
Thursday, November 7, 2019 / 12:00p PT

Register at www.futureofalgae.org

2019 Algae Biomass Summit Kicks Off in Orlando

The 2019 Algae Biomass Summit, largest algae conference in the world, kicked off Tuesday in Orlando, Florida with opening keynote presentations and plenary discussions focused on the latest research, commercial innovation and new products that are being made possible with advanced algae production technologies.

Mark Allen, ABO’s board chair and Vice President at Accelergy Corporation, opened the Summit with an update on the developments that have propelled the algae industry’s growth over the past year. Milestones include a number of new innovations in algae-based products, new production facilities coming online, and growing bipartisan support for algae research, development and deployment.

Allen pointed to provisions in federal budget legislation that expand on R&D support at the Department of Energy, including:

Up to $35 million in new funding for advanced algal systems projects selected by the Department of Energy’s Bioenergies Technologies Office.
Up to $30 million funding in the federal budget for the DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory to support carbon capture projects, a large increase over the $14 million they received last year. Up to $6 million of this funding is specific to algae.

This is a $21 million increase over last year, and would not be possible without ABO’s engagement with bipartisan supporters in Congress, or the progress the industry continues to demonstrate in vital areas, said Allen.

The event’s opening keynote by Dr. Charles Greene of Cornell University highlighted new research that demonstrates how the remarkable abilities of algae to grow fast, absorb carbon dioxide, and ease pressures on water and land use can help meet some of the most critical goals around climate change and global ecosystem preservation. Greene’s presentation examined the latest production potentials to conclude that the use of algae agriculture for food and energy instead of terrestrial crops could:

Produce millions of gallons of liquid hydrocarbon fuels required for jet aviation, heavy vehicles, marine shipping and other applications that will be difficult to electrify,
Produce the protein necessary to feed a global population approaching 10 billion people,
Conserve one fifth of global freshwater consumption,
Conserve one third of wild harvest fisheries,
Release nearly 3 million square kilometers of cropland for reforestation,
Decrease land use, and in combination with the decrease in fossil carbon emissions, account for a total reduction of approximately one quarter to one third of annual CO2 emissions by 2040.

Dr. Greene’s presentation envisioned a global algae cultivation industry.

The pressures on global food, energy and water supplies were a common theme on the first day of the Summit, but the need to develop products that meet the everyday demands of consumers was a lesson that some of the industry’s current leaders felt was just as important to ensure algae technologies and products become successful.

A plenary panel titled “Algae in Food and Feed Going Mainstream” featured some of the leaders in micro- and macro-algae supply chains, including Corbion, BioMar, Bluglacier, NBO3 Technologies, Blue Evolution, and Algama. All agreed that as new products enter the market it will be necessary to leverage the sustainability advantages of algae, but also acknowledge the realities of market demand.

Alvyn Severian, founder of Algama, a developer of algae-based foods, said his company’s priorities for a new product start with taste, but also include health, sustainability and pricing characteristics. “Our products must taste good or consumers will not buy them,” said Severin.

The Summit’s “Food and Feed Going Mainstream” panel.

A second keynote introduced Summit attendees to one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy: agriculture. Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union discussed some of the implications of new algae provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill. The legislation that was signed into law late last year acknowledged algae for the first time as a crop, alongside corn, soy and others.

Johnson highlighted a long history among farmers working with programs that incentivize new technologies for carbon capture, emissions reductions, water conservation, and land preservation–all big advantages that come with advanced algae cultivation.

“There’s always a frustration that change happens slowly, but new technology advances and political pressures are changing that,” said Johnson.

The Algae Biomass Summit continues today and tomorrow with sessions covering technical advances, breakthroughs in biology and production, new products and markets, and policy developments. The Summit concludes on Thursday with site tours of Valensa International’s CO2 extraction technology and a carbon capture and algae cultivation demonstration at the Orlando Utility Commission’s Stanton Energy Center.

DOE’s Bio-Restore Workshop to Focus on Algae R&D Needs

EERE logo On September 25 and 26, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE’s) Bioenergy Technologies Office will host a workshop to identify data and R&D needs to enable the use of dedicated energy crops and algae for restoring water quality and enhancing soil health, while creating a new feedstock supply for the bioeconomy. Participants will discuss the current state of technologies relevant to both terrestrial and algal biomass, as well as the potential for these technologies to reverse environmental degradation and provide important ecosystem services. If successful, these technologies have the potential to increase availability and reduce costs of bioenergy and bioproducts.

The workshop will focus on the current state-of-the-art and R&D needs pertaining to:

Using dedicated energy crops to improve water quality and soil health (e.g., enhanced soil carbon levels) and provide other benefits
Algae technologies including direct harvest of algal blooms, turf scrubbers, and macroalgae
Quantification and valorization of ecosystem services
Low-cost sensors and data management systems that enable production of dedicated energy crops and algae
Overcoming challenges of integrating biomass production for restoration with bioenergy feedstock supply chain needs

This workshop will be held at the Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL.

Date and Time:

September 25: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

September 26: 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Location:

Argonne National Laboratory
9700 S. Cass Avenue
Lemont, IL 60439

Register now!

Retail Giant Tesco Call for More Algae-Based Salmon Feeds

UK-based retail giant Tesco has called for an increased use of algae-based feeds in farmed salmon. The news is a big development for the algae industry, the future of aquaculture, and those that are watching how global supply chains must become more sustainable to meet the needs of growing populations.

As the world’s population grows, driving the need for more food, we will have to find ways to to produce more protein without causing additional pressures on global ecosystems. Algae-based omega 3s help to cut down on the use of wild-caught forage fish in feeds for farmed fish and are a crucial ingredient to enabling the growth of aquaculture while reducing pressure on wild fisheries.

With more than 3,400 stores globally, Tesco’s power to influence supply chain standards means their call for more algal oil in feeds will likely influence others to do the same.

A number of ABO members have introduced algae-based salmon feed ingredients in the past few years, and with new production facilities coming online in just the past few months, it seems that the potential for algae to provide big strides in the name of sustainability is beginning to take shape.

Read more at Seafood Source, Feed Navigator and Intrafish.

Funding Opportunity for Algae from the US Department of Agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is supporting algae like never before, thanks to a new Farm Bill that gave algae farmers everything from new crop protections, to support for advanced R&D and commercialization. This month the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced a funding opportunity from its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program that could be of interest to ABO members.

Algae is specifically mentioned as eligible in at least two topic areas:

Aquaculture, which funds “research projects with the overall goal of leading to improved production efficiency and increased competitiveness of private sector, commercial aquaculture in the United States.” This topic area includes a wide range of subtopics that can qualify for funding, and algae is one of them:

Algal Production Systems. Novel or innovative approaches to improve the efficiency of algal production and feedstock logistics including identification of new (or improved) species with improved nutritional profile for use in aquaculture feed, human food, or food supplements; development of improved bioreactor technology; and development of new methods for harvesting algal biomass.

Biofuels, and Biobased Products, which promote “the use of non-food biobased products and biofuels by developing new or improved technologies that will lead to increased competitiveness of value-added products from agricultural materials.” These technologies can include New Non-food Biobased Products from New Industrial Crops, and New Processes for the Manufacture of Industrial Products, Chemicals, or Biofuels. Algae is among the range of technologies that can qualify for funding.

Other areas of the opportunity may also be open to algae farmers, technologies and product developers.

Get the full details at the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Closing date for application is October 23, 2019.