Impressions: delegate Margit Pelzer, German Aquaculture Association

                             
  
 ‘The first two days of December have been a highlight with regard to a very important subject. The participants of this congress had the chance to take a look into the future, the future of algae as an important part of the future.

The first day was taken up with themes and projects regarding Micro- and Macro-algae, and I want to speak about a few examples. One of it is a magnificent project of Prof. Dr. Min Thein from Myanmar. He spoke about using the Spirulina Crater Lakes for the development of a variety of products.Impressive pictures and a video showed the wonderful lakes and the different process steps from the enhancement ponds and lake-harvesting by boat up to the storage bags for dry biomass and the products for cosmetics, human health, food and animal feed. It was great to be present as Prof. Min Thein received an award for his promotion of Algae biotechnology for developing industrial products and for its contribution to human health.

Dr. Laurent Blériot, CEO Bioalgostral SAS, spoke about the optimisation of Microalgae production in the tropical region, La Réunion. On this island Bioalgostral SAS (BAO) has teamed up with Germany’s IGV, Prof. Dr. Otto Pulz, for the delivery and establishment of an industrial plant for the production of biofuels from Microalgae with a total volume of 82,000 litres in 2012. They set up a multidisciplinary team, which uses the laboratories of both countries for a pre-industrial pilot project with the aim of promoting the use of Microalgae biomass for food, feed and several other products. In his lecture Dr. Blériot covered the effects of varied levels of sunshine and presented development plan.The recently commissioned facility is the result of a cooperation since 2010. The first phase of the project through 2014 will focus solely on biofuel production to provide transport fuel for the island. During the second phase through 2017, the project will expand from 1 ha to 5 ha and will include production of products for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, “a project of mutual interest for Réunion Island and its population and at least a pilot test for planet earth”, as Dr. Blériot said.


“Cracking the Algae Code” is a quote from Dr. Ronald Korstanje, TNO, NL, and asked how to fulfill the algae promise. TNO has been active together with algae production and technology provider Ingrepro, in setting up know-how and technology for the economic refinery of algae. Both companies are setting up an algae ingredient consortium involving algae growers and ingredient end-users. A presentation and discussion about the consortium followed with an invitation of a glass of champagne as a wonderful closing for the morning session.

Prof. Dr. Otto Pulz from IGV GmbH Potsdam opened the afternoon session, he gave a rough insight into the typical developments in closed photo-bioreactors, especially for mass cultivations and he demonstrated that the key issue in the design is the technical solution for light incidence.Vertical oriented designs using high surface to volume ratios allow high productivities. As an example he described the successful industrialisation of glass tube photobioreactors. IGV has sold nearly 200 PBR of this type in different volumes worldwide. Finally recent developments were discussed regarding the need for cheap and efficient production of Microalgae biomass.This is the main goal for all technologies, which were discussed in the afternoon and the next day.

Another field was opened by Prof. Dr. Bela Buck, IMARE GmbH, Bremerhaven, who spoke about Macro-algae cultivations in the North Sea using offshore areas. It is reasonable, that it is better for nature and it is more cost effective following a multiuse concept to maximise the benefits of an offshore area. Seaweed, fish and shellfish can grow together in an Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture, a concept for all sea areas due to its ecological impacts. This technology is also being used in a large project of another speaker, Dr. Willem A. Brandenburg, Wageningen “Zeeland Sole.”


A year of sustainable sea farming in the Netherlands was recounted by Dr. Brandenburg. The goal of the team of Dr. Brandenburg and Dr. Julia Wald is to develop sustainable large-scale seaweed cultivation systems to produce quantities of biomass for diverse economic markets, amongst others the protein market for food, feed and industrial purposes. To reach this challenging goal, there is a seaweed test location in the Eastern Schelde and upcoming a larger experimental seaweed farm in the North Sea, near Texel.

The other presentations covered microalgae biomass for food, feed, chemical and the fuel industry including waste water management and CO2-sequestering. A very interesting, constructive day ended with a dinner and many interesting discussions.

The following day focussed on bio-refinery concepts for microalgae and bioprocess engineering. We heard speakers from Wageningen, the Japanese Kobe-University, Cottbus, Iran and Karlsruhe amongst others.Further we learned about Aquaponic and Microalgae in Aquaculture and companies who have reached an industrial scale in the production of microalgae biomass. One of the important messages of the day was the fact that cost competitive production of algae biomass will be a collective effort amongst different industry participants, and this explains the active partnership strategy of Algasol Renewables, Argentinia.

While I´m drinking a cup of coffee, and studying the giant wheel at the Berlin's Christmas market, the question arose, “What makes the world go round?”. The answer lies in the following quote from A. Richmond: “It is not love and money, which makes the world go round, it is the photosynthesis”.

A presentation from Sweden was entitled “Blue is the new green”. Dr. Fredrika Gullfot from Simris Alg said, “All life emanates from the sun, and was born in the sea”.

And what is the answer to the last question of Dr. Birgit Schmidt-Puckhaber, who moderated the session and the main part of the conference: “Is our future green?”. The answer of Dr. Miguel Verhein from Algasol Renewables, Argentinia, was, “Maybe another colour?”I think in the near future, it will be the “Green from the Blue” and the “Blue”. All participants left for home on Friday with many new ideas and impulses for the future of the industry of algae.’


Introducing one of the exhibitors: FLUID IMAGING TECHNOLOGIES ^USA


                                               

Fluid Imaging Technologies, of Yarmouth, Maine, USA, manufactures FlowCAM®, an imaging algal cell and particle analyzer used in the biofuels industry for yeast viability studies, algae classification, lipid analysis via staining and florescence, live and dead population analyses, contamination monitoring, algae growth concentration and growth rate monitoring. FlowCAM takes images of each particle in its field of view and measures those particles or cells on up to 32 parameters. Sophisticated intuitive pattern recognition software facilitates data analysis. The FlowCAM is also used in oceanographic research and water quality monitoring as well as for pharmaceutical, foods and beverage other industrial applications.

For more information, visit http://www.fluidimaging.com/ or email info@fluidimaging.com.



Introducing one of the advisory committee members: Mr. T. ( Timo ) Enderle, Cofactor ^DE


                               

International Algae Congress 2011 | Interview Timo Enderle, Cofactor
3 May 2011 at the BundesAlgen Stammtisch in Hamburg Germany 

What is your and your company’s role in German algae market?
Cofactor is an independent biotech consultancy with a special focus on algal biotechnology. We act at the crossroads between research innovations and business practice, combining biotechnological knowledge with profound business experience. Our clients range from innovative StartUps to international enterprises. Concerning our role in the German market I hope to see cofactor enabling promising German innovations to successfully enter the global markets. Maybe we manage to also act as an advocate for a more audacious approach towards commercialization of algae technologies in Germany.

What are the practical challenges that your customers are facing?
This strongly depends on the customers’ position within the algae value chain. But there is a lot of optimization work going on concerning the technologies involved from growing the algae up to downstream processing of different products. There is a strong need for decreasing investment cost as well as operational cost along each step of the whole process to achieve economic feasibility. I also see a lack of suitable funding resources in Europe. This unfortunately leads to a decelerated growth and migration of innovative ideas to other countries that are providing better funding and more interest in algae biotechnology. Overall I think there is still work to do in stimulating markets for algae and algae products. We need interdisciplinary approaches involving potential customers from various industries to add value to new algae products – that’s were innovation grows!

How do you see the German Government committing to helping develop biofuels and other high value algae products
Today e-mobility and sustainable power generation as solar or wind energy are getting a lot of funding and tax incentives. But we also need to support on innovative biomass approaches like algae. I hope there is going to be some attention towards that as the sector is growing and technologies start to mature.

What do you think is likely to be the biggest point of discussion at the 5th  International Algae Congress 2011?
I’m looking forward to interesting discussions on scale up and status quo of biofuel production from algae. By having most of the scientific elite and influencers throughout various industries together, I also hope to see some discussions about the cross sectorial application of algae and how to gain a lot more visibility for this interesting industry.

Fast forward 10 or 20 years and what would you like to see have happened? -What do you see as some of the key challenges?
Thinking of the future I have the vision of algae being integrated in a variety of different industrial processes. Green Chemistry is getting implemented widely and algae are a part of it. Together with algae, marine biotechnology approaches got in the focus and mankind is starting not only to utilize the huge potential of algae but also of other aquatic species. Maybe we also see the first industrial processes in using algae for the production of therapeutic proteins. At that time, technologies and business models have proceeded to stage at which biofuels from algae are reality as part of a diversified biofuels strategy. Maybe also the first steps toward hydrogen generation using algae are reality. And I personally would love to see bioreactors being integrated in building concepts.

To get there a lot of hurdles have to be overcome. I’m optimistic upon the technological problems – with time and a lot of innovations they can be solved. But I think unfortunately we will see a trough of disillusionment after the “algae biofuels hype” as I’m sure the expectations are too high concerning the timeline right now. Algae technologies will have to survive this. And like in the red biotech sector the survivors establish business models not focusing on the one big market (burning millions of venture capital) but generating cash flow by providing services or targeting smaller markets. So the main challenge for the companies is to adapt to given conditions in time.

So what do you think is needed most at this point in time to develop the potential of algae?
We need targeted financing of algae projects – not only for biofuels but also for other products like nutritional ingredients or biopolymers. We urgently have to increase the visibility of the potential of algae addressing potential markets and the politics, but also with a “public understanding of science” approach to gain acceptance throughout the population.

Looking at the biological and technological potential I feel that we need to increase our attempts to characterize new algae species and selecting the most productive and stable algae stems. Today we often are working with wildtype organisms but to get a hold on the whole potential of algae we have to domesticate them as we did with any of our agricultural crops.

If you had a message to the algal biofuel production industry, what would that be?
Some of the players shouldn’t make promises they may not be able to keep. Time will come when algae biofuel production will be economically feasible due to further technology developments as well as advanced business models and cross financing. But time to market for industrial production of biofuels often is underestimated and some statements might be misleading and feed the hype.

Meet Mr. T. (Timo) Enderle from Cofactor at the 5th International Algae Congress December 1 & 2 in Berlin;