National Algae Association and Algae Industry Magazine Announced Algae Innovation
Awards
05/11/10 The Woodlands, Texas Collaboration between new algae production companies,
researchers and equipment providers is expanding
Strategic alliances are being developed in forming the algae industry. We have all come together
wanting to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, create new jobs and for the US to become selfsustainable. Algae is one solution. Collaboration defines the success of the NAA. In the near
future commercial-scale algae farms will be developed on a regional basis to serve the fuel,
nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, organic fertilizer and bioplastic industries. The algae
industry is projected to be an estimated $1.4 trillion dollar market for fuel and biomass coproducts.
“Countries that fail to commercialize their research discoveries remain diminished…”according to
Juan Enriquez, Managing Director of Excel Venture Management and the author of two bestselling books: As The Future Catches You and The Untied States of America. “Take the U.K., for
example: They discovered penicillin and DNA, but preferred to let the knowledge sit in a college
lab somewhere, rather than let the professor, g-d forbid, benefit from the discovery. The moment
we start adopting those same attitudes in the United States, we will begin to decay.”
And with those thoughts, the National Algae Association is continuing to pursue its mission to
fast-track commercialization of algae. “It’s time to get algae out of the lab and into commercial
production” according to NAA Executive Director Barry Cohen.
Last month, NAA successfully completed its first Algae Production Certification Program, followed
by a two-day conference with updates and presentations from Sandia Labs’ research executive
Ron Pate, who is currently serving as Biomass Program advisor with the Department of Energy,
Chris Cassidy of the USDA, BioCentric Energy’s CEO Dr. Brian Goodall, Bob Vitale of
Waterwheel Factory, Bill Shields of Gehr Plastics, Dr. Kyle Murray of the University of Texas San
Antonio, Stoel Rives’ patent partner Karl Schwappach, Marcos Broken of Evidos, Scott Fraser of
OriginOil, Mike Bellefeuille of Phyco Biosciences, Surajit Khanna of BARD Holding, Pall
Corporation’s Dr. Maria Anez-Lingerfelt, Pierre Moulinie of Bayer MaterialScience, Ben O’Toole of
Algaecake Technologies, Ted Hartke, representing SBAE Industries, Kent Peterson of Fluid
Imaging Technologies, Will Thurmond of Emerging Markets Online, John Panabianco of Jacobs
Engineering, Cindy Thyfault of Westar Resources, Gary Reeves of Yokogawa Corporation of
America, Mike Vaughn of Millipore Corporation, Kevin Drumm of SRS, and Clay Claus, student at
University of Denver. Algaepreneur awards were presented to Ed Baker, BioCentric Energy and
OriginOil for their achievements and dedication. Each conference day ended with a field trip to
the closed-loop photobioreactor donated to Lone Star College.
NAA's next initiative is the Algae Innovation Awards, co-sponsored by National Algae Association
and Algae Industry Magazine. With an eye toward young talent leading the future of
algaebioenergy development, the National Algae Association (nationalalgaeassociation.com), in
cooperation with Algae Industry Magazine, announces the launch of the Algae Innovation
Awards, a scholarship competition for innovative university and college microbiology and
engineering students as well as for high school science students. More information is available on
our website.