Big Oil, Big Ag, Big Auto, Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Air,…all the big boys, are all throwing their weight (And Dollars) behind algae.
Almost all the world’s major industries are recognizing the potential of algae. Even the most jaded are giving ground and conceding to the tsunami of commercial support for building algae infrastructure. And they’re voting with their wallets. Not only is private business jumping in with both feet, but entire governments are betting their countries capital on it. Here are just a few of the developments this week in the world of algae…
The news out of algae biofuels sector is nothing short of mind blowing.
First Australia: The boys “Down Under” are getting serious. It’s been my experience that when Aussie’s get down to business, you need to get out of their way. People in algae biofuels are starting to refer to the continent now as “algstralia.” Australia is moving into commercial scale algae biofuels at a fever pitch. They’re probably going to get to commercial scale before we (the US) do. Good on you!
Aurora biofuels, algae-TEC, and a host of other world reknown companies are opening up the West Coast of Australia to algae biofuels. Massive studies, being done by a team of researchers at NMurdoch Univeristy and the University of Western Australia in identifying key areas for commercial scale production.
Keep in mind, Aurora Algae, at the demonstration plant it opened in May of this year, met all of its ten milestone operating targets set by the Western Australian Government’s Low Emissions Energy Development (LEED) fund.
In addition, Algaetec an Australian based company inked a deal with Luthansia Airlines to build a commercial plant.
Algae Market Growth Predicted at 41.3% per year
A recent stud
y came out predicting algae biofuels to see market growth of 43.1% annually. According to energy research firm SBI, algae biofuels will post a compound annual growth rate of 43.1% that will lead the market to $1.6 billion in 2015. “Investment into algae biofuels is shifting as government grants, which were a major funding source in 2009 when over $100 million in funding from the US Department of Energy was distributed, is being replaced by strategic partnerships and slowly growing internal company revenues,” it says.
According to Biofuels Digest, there are 14 algae companies now listed in the top 50 of America’s “Hottest Biofuel Companies.” Including, Sapphire Energy, Algenol, Algix, Cellana, Phycal, Algae.Tec, Bioalgene, BioProcess Algae, Heliae, Muradel, Bio Architecture Lab, Solix, and Aurora Algae.
Success, breeds even more success
The Algae Biomass Summit opened this week in Denver, Colorado. Among the exhibitions include a 50/50 blend of biodiesel derived from algae and cooking oil waste, developed by the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), and a 100% algae-derived Green Crude diesel fuel provided by Sapphire Energy. Here are just some of the highlights.
Algae Biomass Summit: Producers say commercialization is close. The take-away message was that algae production is very close to commercial deployment
Small American companies are directing the global algae industry’s commercialization approach. With Big Oil, Big Food and big money behind them, U.S. algae start-ups continue to scale up, build out, and tap into the infrastructure of willing industrial hosts from Iowa to Indonesia.
7,000 gallons per acre?
Yesterday Algenol CEO Paul Woods announced , that it’s 4 acre pilot plant has continuous production of algae ethanol at the 7,000 gallon per acre level. Algenol, an industry leader and innovator, is once again, taking the first steps toward commercial production.
Major advances in commercializing co-products like cosmetics, food, feed, and chemicals are supporting the industry that is ramping up to providing commercial quantities for fuel markets. So much so that The Dept. of Energy just awarded $15 million in AZ to build the first national algae testbed.
BioProcess Algae’s Tim Burns said his company’s story is “all about colocation” and going after what he called the “insatiable demand” markets: high value feed ingredients, first, and advanced biofuels later.
What we are clearly seeing here is the beginning stages of a huge, new industry being born.
The “Algae Revolution” has begun.
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