Heliae: Biofuels Digest’s 2014 5-Minute Guide

April 1, 2014 |

Heliae develops advanced algae strains, production technology, and downstream processing equipment to optimize algae production for a range of product targets in the nutrition, therapeutics, agrosciences, health & beauty and specialty chemicals and fuels fields.

Heliae, founded in 2008, has assembled algae production systems, contamination control. harvesting, product extraction and has developed a suite of Heliae algae strains.

Business:

Heliae offers clients access to its library of wild and enhanced algae strains, each selected and honed for key attributes to offer a wide range of product and service functionality.

Heliae now offers a complete series of commercially-validated algae production systems — including strain screening, in-situ mobile pilot systems, seed production units, and the Volaris production platform.

Also, Heliae has developed comprehensive contamination management systems and protocols to catch contamination early and solve problems long before cultures crash, quality is degraded, and operational performance suffers.

Awards:

Heliae was named a finalist in Biofuels Digest’s 2014 Transformative Technologies competition.

Model:

Technology developer and systems licensor.

The Situation:

In January 2014, Heliae Development had booked $4.2 million in sales for their raceway-based algae growing technology in 2014, after recently completing a $13 million demonstration plant. Although the company has equipment on site to develop fuels from the algae, and the company has previously turned algae into jet fuel on site, Heliae is focusing on the growing side of the equation. The company brought in more than $1 million in revenue last year.

Past Milestones:

In April 2013, Heliae entered into a distribution partnership with Evodos, a leader in the field of algae harvesting technology. The Evodos Spiral Plate Technology (SPT) allows high separation effectiveness with minimal energy required, using only 3000 G’s. The remaining process liquid is removed before discharge, leaving algae biomass 98 percent free of extracellular water and ready for further downstream processing.

In September 2013, Triton Algae Innovations announced the completion of its Series-A equity financing of $5 million. The investment was made by Heliae Technology Holdings, Inc. This funding round will be used to support Triton’s ongoing research and development programs, expansion of Triton’s PhycoLogix platform, and commercialization of Triton’s first product, PhycoShield.

In July 2013, Heliae announced that it raised $28.4 million in funding from existing and new investors. Existing investors include select members of the Mars family and the ASEAN-based global conglomerate Salim Group, through one of its subsidiaries, Agri Investments Pte Ltd. The funding will be used to support the operation and expansion of Heliae’s first commercial facility in Gilbert, Ariz. The facility will be operational in September of 2013, supplying high-value personal care and nutraceutical products to existing customers.

In May 2013, Heliae and The Clarecastle Group announced a strategic partnership to bring novel algae-based products to the health and beauty industry. The partnership pairs a leader in algae science and production technology with a seasoned consortium of personal care and beauty industry executives with a track record of bringing innovative products to market. A Manhattan-based management consulting firm comprised of former cosmetic and personal care industry executives, The Clarecastle Group boasts a century of collective relevant expertise in designing, formulating, branding and launching novel cosmetic and personal care products.

In April 2013, Heliae is announcing the launch of its new microalgae production platform, Volaris. Volaris is the result of five years of targeted innovation, investment and commitment to delivering a commercially validated technology platform for producing high purity microalgae at competitive prices. Deployment of the Volaris platform will support commercial activities in Heliae’s target markets including nutrition, therapeutics, health & beauty, and agrosciences. The company said that Volaris will play an important role in Heliae’s new 20-acre commercial facility currently under construction in Gilbert, Ariz., slated to open in late Q3 of 2013 — and other commercialization activity (think expansion to Indonesia) to begin later this year.

Future Milestones:

Additional deployments of the Volaris system and associated technologies.

Website.

Category: 5-Minute Guide

Thank you for visting the Digest.