Category: Blog

ACI’s 7th European Algae Industry Summit is fast approaching. Taking place on 26th & 27th April 2017 in Nice, France, the two way event will bring together key players within the algae industry including leaders from food, feed, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics across the globe to join our forum discussions and gain a deeper understanding of recent industry developments and, most importantly, economically viable applications.

The event targets algae cultivation plant owners and operators, food, feed, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics companies, leading algae/biomass research institutes, technology providers for cultivation, harvesting, dewatering, drying, oil extraction and processing, plant engineers and constructors, algae end market users, biofuel producers and green energy & biotech investors.

Key Topics Include:

• Global Updates on Algae Trade
• LCA and Techno-Economic Analysis
• Market Establishment with High Value Applications Cultivation
• Efforts towards Economically Efficient Technologies
• Microalgae in Chemicals, Commodity & Speciality Feeds
• Waste Water Treatment
• Algae: The Future of Food?
• Advantages of Algae in Nutraceuticals & Cosmetics
• Industry Case Studies: What Can We Learn from Both Successes & Failures?

For more information and to view the latest agenda, please visit the event site.

ABO member DSM and Evonik announced this month a joint venture to build a $200 million facility to produce an omega-3 salmon feed product from algae.  The facility, coming online in 2019, will be constructed on an existing Evonik site in the United States. 

The announcement heralds a new era for algae in fish and agriculture feeds. Algae-based feeds and additives can be produced with less water and land inputs than other crops, and they can dramatically reduce the need for overtaxing fish stocks in the ocean that are already under stress. 

Moreover, the size of the investment shows that even the initial phases of algae-technology commercialization can have enormous economic impacts for communities around the U.S. 

Read more about the projects, and some of the innovative details about the algae oil product, at FeedNavigator. 

The Algae Foundation has announced that it is offering $500 travel grants for students to attend the 11th Annual Algae Biomass Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, from October 29 through November 1, 2017. In order to qualify, applicants must be an ABO Member as well as an undergraduate, graduate student, pre-doctoral student or a PhD with a post-doctoral appointment and currently involved in a full time academic research program for no longer than 2 years.

Applicants must submit an abstract to present a poster or oral presentation at ABS 2017 and be the presenting author of the abstract. Other requirements include the submission of a suggested budget to attend the Summit and a current letter of recommendation. Selection is made by the Algae Foundation Travel Grant Selection Committee—the awards are highly competitive. Selection criteria include:

• The relevance and scientific quality of the submitted abstract
• The student has not received a similar travel grant award in the last two years
• Only one travel grant per laboratory

All applications and materials should be sent to:

• Barb Scheevel, Algae Foundation Administrative Coordinator
• Email: bscheevel@algaebiomass.org
• Address:
  • 125 St. Paul Street, P.O. Box 369
  • Preston, MN 55965

For more details about applying to the travel grants, visit the Algae Foundation website.

Be sure to submit your abstract for a speaking or poster presentation at the 11th annual Algae Biomass Summit by tomorrow’s deadline for priority review! This year the Summit will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 29-November 1, 2017. 

Algae technologies and products are constantly finding new applications in a wide range of industries and commercial markets. Join hundreds of other leaders in research, commercialization, business development, finance and policy at the largest algae conference in the world! 

Submit today!

The IEA Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Program has published an update on the status and prospects for using micro- and macroalgae as bioenergy feedstocks. The report acts as an update to the IEA Bioenergy Task 39 report published in 2010—but this report’s scope is expanded beyond biofuels to consider bioenergy options more generally, acknowledging some interesting developments that have been happening in the algae bioenergy space.

The results of the report are insightful and exciting. The overarching conclusion: “significant opportunities exist to take advantage of the high photosynthetic efficiency of algae, both micro- and macroalgae, for bioenergy and biofuels production.” While the report acknowledges that economic and sustainability challenges still exist, there are ways to mitigate and ultimately solve those challenges in the short-, medium- and long-term.

Some key findings from the report include:  

• Nearer term opportunities exist to use algae in an integrated biorefinery context to make higher value food, feed, nutraceutical and oleochemical bio-products, to help drive development of economic bioenergy production
• Recent technology developments facilitate the use of all algal biomass components; no longer is algal biomass production focused solely on achieving high lipid yield
• Macroalgae have significant potential as a biogas, chemicals and biofuels crop in temperate oceanic climates in coastal areas. 

Notably, the report stresses the importance of data sharing and harmonization of analytical approaches in the industry—a finding that we fully support.

For more about the report and its findings, visit the IEA Bioenergy website.