Category: Blog

While there’s been a lot of effort in the algae industry to produce aviation biofuels from algae, today we’re talking about algae on a different type of runway – the fashion scene. The clothes that you are currently wearing could be the most toxic items that you encounter today.

550 types of dyes and over 3,000 chemicals including carcinogenic chemicals, hormone disruptors or heavy metals once used by the textile industry are now being restricted by laws in various countries. Consumers are increasingly demanding that their clothing, furniture and other daily products not pose a health risk.

But according to the Berlin-based design studio, Blond & Bieber, “All that’s needed is some algae” to reduce the prevalence of toxic substances in everyday products, including clothing.

Essi Johanna Glomb and Rasa Weber from Blond & Bieber researched the various microalgae species found throughout Europe to discover how the diversity of colors found within algae species can be used to make textiles.

Forget alchemy – Glomb and Weber are using “Algaemy.” According to an article by Sydney Brownstone in Fast Company, “Unlike light-stable dyes normally used on clothes, the algaemy colors change over time. A green might fade to a blue, for example.” Weber calls this phenomenon “living colors.”

You can watch Glomb and Weber grow algae and paste designs onto textiles here.

It’s a sad day for the Algae Biomass Organization and many people in the industry as we learn that Mary Rosenthal, ABO’s first executive director, passed away on Saturday after a battle with cancer.

Mary took the reins at ABO during a time – 2009 —  when she wasn’t sure if there would even be enough funding for long term employment. Back then, algae was just coming on to the national radar, and ABO had been formed to bring this fledgling industry together.

No stranger to evangelizing sustainable products and materials from her time at NatureWorks, Mary rolled up her sleeve and was instrumental in developing new members, transforming the annual Algae Biomass Summit into thepremier industry conference, and becoming the voice of the algae industry.

During her tenure the organization grew to more than 200 members representing a wide cross section of industry. Under Mary’s leadership the ABO also achieved success on numerous policy initiatives on the Hill, including getting algae biofuels to qualify for the $1.01 tax credit for the first time ever.

Mary was an inspiration to many as she continued to fight for algae even while fighting cancer. She will be missed.

UPDATE: On October 4, 2014 Biofuels Digest recalled Mary’s contributions to the industry and the loss felt by those that had the privilege of working with her.

UPDATE 2: Tim Portz at Biomass Magazine writes a moving tribute to Mary, an article that has also attracted comments from many that have worked with her over the years.

UPDATE 3: If you would like to send regards to the family please get in touch with ABO. Our office number is 877-531-5512.

For donations and memorials, please send them in honor of Mary to the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance (MOCA). Their address is 4604 Chicago Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407 and their phone number is 612-822-0500. You are welcome to instead send these donations and memorials to your local Ovarian Cancer Society.

Readers of the blog know that ABO has been pushing the EPA to include carbon capture and utilization among its approved pathways for emissions reductions goals for power plants.

The transportation sector is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases (after power generation), responsible for about 32% of total U.S. CO₂ emissions and 27% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2012.

While it’s relatively easy to capture emissions from a stationary source, like a smokestack, it’s immeasurably harder to capture it from a mobile source – like a car. Or is it?

Sacre Bleu! This summer, as part of a festival in Geneva, the Dutch and French design firm Cloud Collective built an algae farm on an overpass. The algae were fed by CO₂ emissions from passing vehicles below and on sunlight from above.

Check out this video – a beautiful design and ingenious integration into the built environment.  At 1:50 into the video, check out the movement of algae – it looks like the traffic below!

As much as the design was reflective of the potential of algae, it’s also yet another sign of how algae technology inspires researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs and artists around the world.

ABO’s We the People carbon capture & utilization (CCU) White House petition closed last week and we are thrilled with the results!

The CCU petition asked the White House to encourage the EPA to permit states to meet CO₂ reduction goals by recycling CO₂ with carbon capture & utilization technologies. Carbon capture & utilization is a common sense, market-driven, job creating and emission – reducing technology. It allows utilities and carbon dioxide emitters to think of CO₂ as an opportunity, rather than a problem.

This map shows the locations of people that signed the White House carbon capture & utilization petition.  

Our petition results show broad support across the U.S. for carbon capture & utilization technologies:

• 348 people signed the petition.
• We received signatures from CCU supporters across 45 states and in 215 cities.
• The states that had the greatest number of CCU supporter signatures were California (58), Illinois (29), Arizona (22), Virginia (16), Maryland (16) and Washington (16).

The backing shown for CCU in our petition has been echoed by an increasing number of legislator support.

Just this past month, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) visited Bioprocess Algae to learn how waste CO₂ can be turned into valuable, cost-cost competitive products. Manchin was so impressed with Bioprocess Algae’s technology that he left the visit with a smile saying, “This is what it’s all about.”

Representative Scott Peters (D-CA) is on the same page as Manchin and Whitehouse. On October 24^th, Peters sent a letter to EPA Administer Gina McCarthy asking the EPA to clarify the use of CCU technologies in the emission reduction plans of the Clean Power Plan rules.

Join the U.S. governmental leaders and citizens who support carbon capture & utilization! Let your representatives know that you back this emissions reduction technology.

Representative Scott Peters (D-CA) has asked EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to clarify the use of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies in emissions reduction plans by states working to comply with the agency’s Clean Power Plan rules.

A number of companies in California and around the nation are developing new technologies that use carbon dioxide as a feedstock for making valuable products. However, the EPA’s proposed rules do not specifically endorse the approach as a means to achieve emissions reductions under the law. Rep. Peters specifically mentions the algae industry in his letter:

Algae CCU is adequately demonstrated and technically feasible. It can be implemented at a reasonable cost, provide meaningful emission reductions, and its inclusion in state plans will serve to promote further development and deployment of the technology. By creating a market for captured carbon, carbon utilization can mitigate, offset, or even negate the cost of carbon capture, providing a CO2 reduction mechanism that minimizes the cost to ratepayers.

Rep. Peters also notes that clarifying CCU’s role in emission reduction plans would stimulate further investment and innovation:

I ask you clarify for my office–and to states and CCU technology developers–as soon as possible if the EPA will support inclusion of carbon utilization in state emissions reduction plans. Such affirmative recognition would provide states and sources of private capital with the confidence to invest in this promising CO2 solution while helping to create a market for CO2 that reduces the cost of compliance.

Read Rep. Peters’ letter here.

Rep. Peters joins a growing list of legislators that have endorsed the use of technologies that can recycle carbon dioxide into useful products, simultaneously reducing emissions and minimizing costs to power producers. Most recently, Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)  visited algae producer BioProcess Algae to review the company’s approach that capture CO2 to produce algae-derived animal feeds.