National Algae Association Denounces Recent Department of Energy Claims

The recent claim that algae was excluded from the DoE’s Billion Ton Update because of a lack of data is preposterous, according to NAA Executive Director Barry Cohen.
Sept. 26, 2011 - PRLog -- Last week’s statement that algae was excluded from the Billion Ton Update is just the latest debacle in an agency that deserves all of the current scrutiny it is under, according to NAA Executive Director Barry Cohen.   Algae has been researched at universities for decades going back to the Carnegie Mellon study 50 years ago.   EERE’s Recovery Act Algae R&D budget for FYs 2009 and 2010 was $84 million. The Biomass Peer Review held in April of 2011 revealed that several of the projects had received all of their funding, but had completed less than 30% of the project being supported. The Biomass Program of the Department of Energy released its National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap in June, 2010, after constructing the framework for the Roadmap in December, 2008. While it lists perceived challenges, nowhere in the Roadmap does it give one reason why algae should not be pursued, and those most if not all of those challenges have since been met. Nowhere in the Roadmap is it contemplated that the research would have anything whatsoever to do with algae for food, and yet it was recently announced that the US Department of Energy agreed to make a presentation at an upcoming conference on ‘algae as a contributor to the food chain’.   According to Cohen, “…algae has been used as food in industry for years.   It’s pretty much established an fact that if you’re growing for algae biocrude oil, you need a strain with a high oil content, and if  you’re growing for food or other co-products, you need a lower oil content. About 10% of the approximately 3,000 algae strains are better suited for biofuel than food or co-products.  If nobody on Team Algae, the latest group within the Biomass Program at the Department of Energy bestowed with managing the algae initiative, or its predecessors, knows this, they need to be replaced with more knowledgeable people; if Team Algae knows the difference and supported projects that would never reduce our dependence on foreign oil, one must question why.”

Cohen went on to say, “I appreciate the frustration that algaepreneurs around the country are feeling, and I feel their pain.  Despite all of the positive results we are having, the government department that should be helping to achieve success seems to not have the ability to take this out of the lab and into commercial production.  In private industry, the lack of results would not be tolerated.  No business could ever be successful if there are no results 50 years later.   In the Department of Energy, this seems to be acceptable.  It’s no wonder algae initiatives throughout Europe and in other countries, like China, Australia, Israel and Canada, are far more successful than ours.  They are positioning themselves to be the next generation of oil producers, and we will be exchanging OPEC dependence with that of the PRC. I think the problem is much deeper than needing political permission to get off foreign oil, as cited by former Shell CEO John Hofmeister. I think it has to do with whether or not the US government, and especially the Department of Energy's Biomass Program, really wants to get us off of foreign oil or not.”

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NAA's mission is to fast track commercialization of algae as an alternative fuel to reduce US dependency on foreign oil and to create jobs in the US by putting algae researchers, algae growers, farmers and producers, and equipment manufacturers together for constructive collaboration
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Tags:Algae, Algal, Department Of Energy, Biofuel, Alternative Fuel, Biomass, Doe, Algae Production, Algae Growing
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