Category: Blog

The deadline approaches for submitting abstracts for speaking and poster opportunities for the 2015 Algae Biomass Summit. This year we will be at the Marriott Washington Wardman Park in Washington, DC, September 30th to October 2nd.

The first priority deadline is March 16, 2015. Abstracts submitted after this date will be reviewed as they are received.

Expose your business and research to the world’s largest gathering of algal thought leaders. Abstracts selected for speaking slots receive a discount for registration to the Summit.

Click here to submit your abstract!

ABO member Matrix Genetics has announced a technology breakthrough that allows for rapid and efficient production of pigments and proteins in Spirulina, a species of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). This discovery will offer the food industry a new, scalable and sustainable source of safe ingredients that meet the increasing demands of consumers.

A lot of food colorings and other food ingredients are made from petroleum, synthetic processes or come with health concerns. Even many of the natural food dyes and ingredients used today come from unsustainable sources, like the palm oil that leads to forest degradation. Upping the production of algae-derived alternatives means they can be made without major freshwater impacts and even on non-agricultural lands such as deserts. ​

Before this advance from Matrix Genetics, the global production of Spirulina had been held back by the lack of efficient genetic engineering. Matrix has broken through this bottleneck by being the first to invent rapid and efficient genetic methods for modifying Spirulina. These methods have been long sought after by the algal industry, but have proven elusive.

Read more about Matrix Genetics’ breakthrough here.

Application Deadline: March 9, 2015
New Deadline: March 16, 2015

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has recently added algae to an existing funding opportunity announcement (FOA) aimed at R&D for “Transformational Carbon Dioxide Capture Technologies for Coal-Fired Power Plants.”  The funding opportunity was amended to insert a new area of interest:  Area of Interest 4 – Biological CO2 Use/Conversion, and the FOA specifically states, “For the purpose of this solicitation, biological use/conversion applications should be limited to aquatic species, such as microalgae and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria).”

This is significant policy advancement for the algae industry and one that ABO has been actively pushing.  We applaud NETL for their interest in algae as a means of utilizing CO2.  This solicitation is an effort by the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory to gather information they need to determine whether they should make future investments in algae as a means of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere.  NETL is specifically interested in algae’s capacity to reduce atmospheric CO2 as well as the technological and economic feasibility of algae CO2 utilization.  NETL is most interested in technologies which produce bulk commodities like fuel and chemicals.

You can find the full documentation for this opporttunity on FedConnect.net:

https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0001235&agency=DOE

Matt Carr, Executive Director, Algae Biomass Organization

In a paper published yesterday, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, find that biomass power generation, when combined with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), is a potential negative carbon power source. Because plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere during growth, capture and underground storage of CO2 from biomass combustion can result in net reductions of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) approach, the authors conclude, could be a key strategy to mitigating climate change.

The authors have it almost right. Capturing carbon from combustion of biogenic carbon does indeed provide a double carbon benefit to the atmosphere. But the best bang for the buck is delivered when, as in the case of algae-based carbon capture and utilization (CCU), that captured carbon is reused to produce yet more energy that substitutes for fossil fuels. Such a bioenergy with carbon capture and utilization approach (which I here christen BECCU) is a triple play for climate, absorbing carbon upstream, avoiding emissions at the power plant, and keeping fossil carbon stored for all time by substituting algae-based alternatives for fossil-derived fuels.  It’s a AAA-rated approach! And, unlike underground storage, BECCU comes with a strong business case: revenue generated from carbon utilization can help offset, or even negate, the cost of carbon capture. In the case of algae-based CCU, there is even the added potential for co-production of new sources of proteins, plastics, and a host of other valuable products, further enhancing both the environmental and economic sustainability of the system.

We need look no further than the corn fields of Iowa to see BECCU in action – though in a slightly different form. BioProcess Algae’s project with Green Plains, Inc., in Shenandoah, Iowa, shows just how carbon- (and cash-) efficient energy systems can be with BECCU. In capturing biogenic carbon from the corn ethanol fermentation process, BioProcess and Green Plains deliver the same climate triple play as in the power plant scenario while enhancing the economics and environmental profile of corn ethanol production.

Granted, there may be some scenarios where underground storage is still the best available option. So, let’s go with an all-encompassing net negative carbon acronym. Why bioenergy with carbon capture, utilization and storage? BECCUS.

The only conference in the United States focused solely on aquaculture will feature a session dedicated to the expanding role for algae in producing sustainable and nutritious feeds for farm-raised seafood this month in New Orleans. It should be an interesting series of discussions from the leading innovators that plan to use algae to help address some of the world’s press food and ocean health challenges.

Aquaculture America 2015 is taking place February 19-22 at the New Orleans Marriott.

Speakers at the February 20 session on algae will include:

John Benemann, CEO, MicroBio Engineering, Inc.

Amha Belay, Sr. V.P. and CTO, Earthrise Nutritionals, LLC 

Martin Sabarsky, CEO, Cellana, (California, Hawaii)

Craig Behnke, Senior Director Cultivation , Sapphire Energy, Inc.

Dave Hazlebeck, CEO, Global Algae Innovations, Inc. (California, Hawaii)

Paul Angelico, CEO and President, Aurora Algae, Inc. (California and Texas)

Tim Reed, CEO, Reed Mariculture

The session is chaired by Patricia Abelin of Phitec, Inc.

Algae will only play a larger role in aquaculture, especially as farmed seafood becomes a major source of protein for expanding human populations the world over. Algae can be produced sustainably, allowing for aquaculture to expand without depleting the oceans’ fisheries that are currently harvested for aquaculture feeds.