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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
The Woodlands, TX, United States, 04/01/2010 - Following the footsteps of the oil industry pioneers, the National Algae Association is taking algae production out of the laboratory and into the field.
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National Algae Association’s efforts to move the algae industry out of the laboratories and into the commercial-scale production are paying off. Construction has been completed on a commercial-scale photobioreactor (PBR) demo located at Lone Star College in The Woodlands, Texas, thanks to donations of materials, time and effort by Ed Baker, Harvel Plastics, Yokogowa Corp. of America, Fluid Imaging Technologies, and Dr. Dan Kainer, Director of Lone Star’s Biotechnology Institute and some of his students. Plans are already in place to add a commercial-scale harvester and extraction system, along with testing equipment, which will make this the first completed turn-key commercial-scale algae production demo system in the US.
NAA has also established an Engineering Consortium to identify and resolve issues that will arise as various production systems are scaled up. Thanks to the remarkable collaborative efforts of process engineers from Algae Technology Ventures, SNC Lavalin, Origin Oil, Algae Venture Systems, Harvel Plastics, Georg Fischer, Gehr Plastics and SRS Solutions Recovery Services, designs are under way for a 100-acre commercial-scale algae production facility. As a result of the “100 Acre Challenge” issued by Barry Cohen, Executive Director of the National Algae Association to NAA members, the consortium has been working very quickly and diligently to make commercial-scale algae production a reality. We all agree that the US needs to get off of foreign oil and algae could be one solution. Mr. Cohen has been quoted as saying: “Unless we test and benchmark commercial-scale closed-loop PBRs, harvesting and extraction equipment on 100 acres and look at the economies of scale, none of the existing algae technologies or IP will ever have any true value. There is a tremendous difference between desktop algae lab equipment and commercial-scale algae production units, and there’s a steep learning curve. This will allow us to work through major scale-up issues.”
In addition, limited seating remains available for NAA’s groundbreaking Algae Production Certification Program. Algaepreneurs from around the world will have the opportunity to learn all aspects of algae production - from strain selection through growing, harvesting, extraction, along with financial models/economics to help make algae production a profitable endeavor, on April 27-28, two days prior to the National Algae Association Conference on April 29-30, at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Intercontinental.
Exhibit and registration information are available at nationalalgaeassociation.com/.
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info[.]nationalalgaeassociation.com 
