NAA's 3rd Algae Production Incubator Program Opened in Lousiana

HOUSTON - Sept. 10, 2014 - PRLog -- NAA announces that its 3^rd Algae Production Incubator facility is nearing completion, and that close to 20,000 gallons of algae will be in production at a private commercial facility located adjacent to the incubator facility by the end of this month. “One of the best things about this incubator facility and the private commercial facility is that the inoculant for both comes from a company affiliated with the 2^nd Algae Production Incubator facility” said NAA Executive Director Barry Cohen, “and that means that the incubator program is working.”

The incubator program provides a platform for private industry and students to learn about commercial algae production and commercial growing, harvesting and extraction methods. NAA also provides an algae production certification program to provide the baseline of education needed by new algaepreneurs entering the industry.

NAA envisions hundreds of commercial algae farms and algae bio manufacturing facilities scaling-up throughout the US as they already are around the world. As more enhancements are being made to existing research, NAA is in a unique position to collect data and verify algae technologies that are proven to scale outside the lab. By doing so, NAA is trying to create value in algae technologies that are proven outside the lab, are scalable, and has developed a profitable economic model that does not rely on government subsidies or grants. “We have learned from the past that a business model that is based on a tax credit is a flawed plan,” according to Cohen, “and we are encouraging use of proven systems. We’re no longer playing in labs – we’re playing on acreage and with real money, not government grants, and the stakes are much higher.”

Algae have been researched in the U.S. for over 60 years. To date, the US taxpayer has spent over $2.5 billion on algae research. Private industry is using proven algae technologies to scale-up commercial algae production. One thing we have all learned over the last 8 years is that not every algae technology works outside the lab a commercial environment. Commercial algae producers, together with commercially-minded algae researchers and equipment companies, are in collaborating to build the algae production industry.

We have already proven algae works. We have driven cars and flown airplanes with fueled with algae. We see the demand for high value co-products. Algae research grant recipients stated years ago that “all algae technology hurdles have been met. It’s all engineering and scale-up going forward”. And that’s exactly what NAA is doing!