State of the Algae Industry: 10 Top-Level Commercial Leaders Look at the Path to Scale

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) 10 leaders, 10 enterprises, 10 paths to scale — what’s really key to making algae a commercial crop for feed, fuel and pharma, soon?
This week at the Algae Biomass Summit, a pair of key sessions featured 10 of the leading companies in the algae sector:
Paul Woods, CEO, Algenol
Jason Kolb, VP, Algix
Tim Burns, CEO, BioProcess Algae
Martin Sabarsky, CEO, Cellana
Amha Belay, CTO, Earthrise Nutritionals
Fred Tennant, VP, Heliae
Margaret McCormick, CEO, Matrix Genetics
David Lewis, CEO, Muradel
James Levine, CEO, Sapphire Energy
Jim Flatt, CTO, Synthetic Genomics
Their comments on the progress of their companies, their interaction with the Algae Biomass Summit delegates in the Q&A, and their projected key milestones over the next 12 months, provide as good a summary of the state of the algae industry as The Digest can assemble.
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• Algenol is using special modified algae with high rates of production with a $1.30 production cost goal – we produce ethanol and biocrude.
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• Algenol is working on a project in India now.
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• The (Algix) factory is in Mississippi, where we are manufacturing bioplastic
• Greatest challenge for us is adequate supply of algae of biomass
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• We (Algix) are searching the globe for algae, for example working in China, and also in Jamaica where we are looking for a water wastewater treatment facility
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• We (BioProcess Algae) are co-partnered with Green Plains, co-located at their Shenandoah, IA corn ethanol facility where we obtain CO2. Green Plains’ goal is CO2 monetization.
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• Signature off-take agreement with Neste Oil, signed last year (by Cellana).
• We produce multiple products, primarily by volume fuel grade oils and feed – multiple products improve the economics.
• Our demonstration facility is in Kona, Hawaii.
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• We (Earthrise Nutritionals) have a comparatively large commercial-scale facility and have been in existence for 35 years
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• We (Earthrise Nutritionals) produce 500 tons of dry spirulina powder
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• Very concerned with the energy and water issue in order to sustain their business long term, that’s why they (Mars) started Heliae in 2008.
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• (Heliae) Acquired another 20 acres across the street (in Dilbert, AZ) that primarily produces a nutraceutical product derived from Algae
• Second facility by 2016 for either Algae products in personal care and therapeutics
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• Company (Matrix Genetics) started out of cancer research
• Our focus is in developing strains to increase yield
• In 2006 -2007, Targeted Growth started to focus on products to “energize the world” including camelina — Matrix Genetics is a spinout company.
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• Most of their (Muradel's) development has been done in 200 square meter ponds, we have expanded and commissioned a facility at Whyallia, South Australia in 2014. Now main production is in one acre ponds
• We convert biomass into SCWR, extract green crude from kerogen, and fractionate the green crude to produce drop-in fuels
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• Although Sapphire Energy is very established in the industry, with partnership with the USDA and DOE that has led to the construction and operation of the Green Crude Farm in Columbus, NM.
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• Green crude is an important factor of Sapphire Energy and we expect to develop additional products based on the technology that we are bringing forward.
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• We (Synthetic Genomics) concluded that biofuels was not going to be commercially viable in the short term based on the 2000 marine drive strains with major classes of algae that we investigated. So our focus with ExxonMobil is on improving the strains.