In Mississippi, Algix is converting microalgae to a polymer that is gaining big-name customers in the shoe industry.
Dubbed Bloom Foam, the company collects algae from sites of harmful blooms. It then filters and dries the algae and compounds the biomass into pellets.
“We clean the lake and turn the algae into something useful — polymer pellets — that allow us to displace a significant percentage of the fossil fuel-based EVA [ethylene vinyl acetate] that’s currently being used in these products,” Ryan Hunt, co-founder and CTO at Algix, tells Footwear News.
Hunt originally envisioned the company as a biofuel producer but switched focus after realizing biobased fuels could not compete in a world with fracking. Footwear was an attractive target market because shoemakers demonstrated early interest in sustainable alternatives. Algix’s customers include Adidas, Toms, Clarks, Billabong, and Vivobarefoot.
“People look at this green water and think, ‘That’s gross.’ It’s a problem. It’s a liability,” said Hunt. “No one is seeing it as basically a direct replacement for oil. But algae actually has a dollar sign attached to it, which it hasn’t had in the past. These companies are going to see that this is an opportunity.”