Cellana lands milestone $3.5M DOE algae grant
In Washington, the US Department of Energy announced today $3.5 million for an algae project aimed at accelerating the development of sustainable, affordable algal biofuels. This research project supports the Department’s goal of producing 2,500 gallons of algal biofuel feedstock per acre per year by 2018, an important milestone toward reducing the cost of algal biofuels to cost-competitive levels of 5,000 gallons per acre per year by 2022.
Cellana, in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, was selected to receive $3.5 million to develop a fully integrated, high-yield algae feedstock production system by integrating the most advanced strain improvement, cultivation, and processing technologies into their operations at their Kona Demonstration Facility.
Why significant? This is the first major grant award for algae to a multi-product biorefinery with Omega-3s as the high-value co-product. (ATP3 maybe counts, but it wasn’t direct to Cellana.) One observer noted, “DOE has come a long way in broadening their perspectives on how one can scale to achieve both commercial quantities of biofuels and profits simultaneously, rather than one at a time.
The Bottom line
It’s a big win for Cellana and its multi-product business model. Big win for progress in thinking through paths to commercialization, for the DOE.
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