Seambiotic, NASA team up to optimize algae growth

A subsidiary of Ashkelon, Israel-based Seambiotic and the Cleveland, Ohio's NASA Glenn Research Center said today they are joining forces to develop a research and development program to optimize open-pond microalgae growth processes.

Seambiotic’s U.S. subsidiary, Seambiotic USA, and NASA said the program is expected to improve production processes and study and qualify algae oil from alternative species and production processes as a potential source of aviation fuel at NASA's testing facilities. Financial details of the joint collaboration were not disclosed.

"The goal of the agreement is to make use of NASA's expertise in large scale computational modeling and combine it with Seambiotic's biological process modeling to make advances in biomass process cost reduction,” said Seambiotic’s Chief Scientific Adviser Ami Ben-Amotz, in a news release.

Founded in 2003, Seambiotic develops and produces marine algae for the nutraceutical and biofuel industries. The company said it is currently transitioning from the pilot plant stage to large scale industrial algae cultivation and production. In 2008, Seattle, Wash.-based Inventure Chemical entered into a joint venture agreement with Seambiotic to build a pilot algae biofuel plant (see Inventure Chemical, Seambiotic in algae biofuel venture)

Seambiotic's research includes a pilot study at an Ashkelon-based electric power station, where marine algae species have been cultivated using the power station's carbon dioxide emissions released from its smokestacks, according to the company. In turn, the algae are used as biofuel feedstock. Seambiotic claims its technology reduces algae production costs, while lowering global warming by reducing CO₂ emissions.

NASA has already been researching the optimization of algae growth processes. Jonathan Trent, a lead research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., developed a way to produce biofuel from algae offshore through a process that cleans waste water, removes CO₂ from the air and retains important nutrients (see NASA’s got a new way to get biofuel from algae).

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