Algae Does Not Grow in Washington, DC

 
HOUSTON - Sept. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- After over 6 decades of time, and billions of dollars spent at the direction of the Department of Energy and other government agencies, one thing is for sure – algae will never grow in Washington, D.C.

In 2009, the Department of Energy released its National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, which proved that algae was a suitable alternative crop for producing alternate fuel and co-products that supplemented, rather than subtracting from, our food supply.

Since the release of the Roadmap, and despite millions of dollars paid to employees at the DoE and the various government labs, none of their projects has resulted in commercial production. As a matter of fact, most of the technologies that were developed were never proved to scale outside a lab. The funds were directed to companies who hired lobbyists and who rode on the premise that since the grant applications were not certified, the accuracy of the information provided didn’t have to be completely accurate.

The algae production industry does not need lobbyists who have no experience in growing anything and no knowledge of the commercial algae production industry.

Lobbyists don’t have to acknowledge that they have no idea how to scale anything out of a lab and into commercial production and build out the supply channel. They are hired to get free money for their clients, no matter what the industry.

Any technology must be proven to work outside the lab in commercial scale before it has any value – commercial or otherwise, and the algae industry is no different. Instead of focusing on that stage, Washington chose to spend the time and money developing more algae research projects and new technologies – often rendering the last technology obsolete. There are a few commercially-minded algae researchers who are very good at understanding the needs of commercial algae production but lack the hands-on experience of working in private industry in commercialization and deployment efforts; their efforts in commercialization have been thwarted by the quest to be grant recipients.

According to past algae grant recipients “all algae technology hurdles have been met. It’s all engineering and scale-up going forward”. That’s good news! The problem is algae researchers are good at research but have no training in commercialization and deployment. Private industry has stepped in to fill that void. After 60 years of algae research, private industry with private and foreign investment has taken over the task of commercial scale-up in the US and around the world.

Instead of hiring lobbyists in Washington to waste time and money on political favors, NAA members have rolled up their sleeves and are making commercial algae production a reality. We strongly recommend that the algae lobbyists, algae caucus members and algae czars learn about commercial algae production before representing our industry. The fact is that all of NAA’s invitations to these people to attend our workshops and to visit our incubator sites have gone unanswered, and leads the National Algae Association membership to believe that they don’t care to learn. Algae has a great story to tell, but unless lobbyists, algae czars and algae caucuses take the time to learn about commercial algae production, it will continue to be nothing more than a never-ending research project pipe dream for biofuels.
End
Source: » Follow
Email:***@nationalalgaeassociation.com Email Verified
Tags:Algae Biomass, Oil, Drop In Fuels, Energy, Renewable Fuels
Industry:Biotech, Government
Location:Houston - Texas - United States
Account Email Address Verified     Account Phone Number Verified     Disclaimer     Report Abuse
NationalAlgaeAssociation PRs
Trending News
Most Viewed
Top Daily News



Like PRLog?
9K2K1K
Click to Share