In Chile, BAL Chile SA has begun farming algae on the island of Chiloé with plans to produce biofuels for industrial use. The company hopes to produce algae at commercial scale in the next five years. BAL has established strategic alliances with DuPont and Statoil for this initiative and has secured financial support from several […]
In Polynesia, 1st Water Enterprises advises: “We have been commissioned to design, construct and administer a Seaweed (macroalgae) Project for a Polynesian company” that will also produce fish meal. Two possible sites of land have been obtained for the farm and processing plant , and advantageous tax arrangements have been agreed with local government. The […]
In California, Bio Architecture Lab and Norway’s Statoil announced a wide-ranging strategic partnership for the production of renewable, sustainable and low cost ethanol derived from macroalgae grown off the coast of Norway. Statoil will fund BAL’s research and development (R&D) and demonstration projects, and if successful, will also fund the commercialization of BAL’s technology in […]
Of all the results in the recent Transformative Technologies reader poll, the most surprising by far is the support for seaweed-based biofuels technologies. The sector placed third among all transformative technology platforms, with 8.63 percent of the votes. It could be simply that “macroalgae” attracts votes in the way that “jatrophalgae” or “cornalgae” might have, […]
The US Department of Energy’s Billion-Ton Report: Assessment of US renewable carbon resources aims to inform research, development, and deployment strategies. The fourth in a DOE series, the report updates on the latest economic conditions, offers better clarity in terms of additional production potential vs current production, looks at level of resource utilization, production potential […]
In Washington, Department of Energy (DOE) last week released the 2023 Billion-Ton Report (BT23), which shows that the U.S. could sustainably triple its production of biomass to more than 1 billion tons per year. The report—the fourth in a series of assessments of potential biomass resources in the United States since 2005—finds that 1 billion […]
In Washington, the US Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office announced its notice of intent (NOI) to issue a funding opportunity announcement that will drive the research and development of low-carbon, purpose-grown energy crops leading to the deployment of clean energy technologies. The planned Regional Resource Hubs for Purpose-Grown Energy Crops funding opportunity will support […]
The Billion Ton 23 update is coming. BETO needs a comprehensive biomass resource assessment that is end-use agnostic — for example, MSW and microalgae numbers in BT16 do not represent current BETO Analysis. There is a need to add conventional ag and forestry resources, oilseed and cover crops,macroalgae, CO2 and to align with USDA forest […]
Among the newest adopters, we’re reporting this week that cactus leather slip-ons prove G.H. Bass isn’t “loafing about” on sustainability. In addition Tarform has revved up use of renewables for its electric motorcycles, using a flaxseed and biobased resin composite dyed with algae-based pigments. Finally, Germany’s Playmobil will soon expand its Wiltopia bioplastic range of […]
Since the summer of last year, a cadre of algae and energy R&D veterans have been hammering away to create The Algae Prize, to catalyze student teams to tackle Production, Downstream Processing, Identification of Novel Products or Tools and compete for $130,000 in prizes, in a $300,000 initiative now sponsored by the US Department of […]
