Canada’s first algal biorefinery demonstration project, a collaborative research effort between the National Research Council of Canada’s (NRC) Algal Carbon Conversion (ACC) program, Pond Technologies and Votorantim Cimentos’ St Marys Cement, is revolutionizing how industrial carbon emissions are managed. The project uses a 25,000 L photobioreactor within a pilot scale algal biorefinery to recycle carbon dioxide and other airborne industrial pollutants into algal biomass that can be further converted into sustainable products, including renewable biofuels and biomaterials. The process being deployed by NRC experts and its partners is designed to rapidly recycle carbon dioxide (CO2) and other airborne industrial emissions into biomass through photosynthesis.- Cellana, Inc., a leading developer of algae-based products for sustainable nutrition and energy applications, and PIVEG, Inc., a leader in high-specification ingredients for the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, food and beverage, feed, and cosmetics industries, announced that they have signed a letter of intent for the joint development and commercialization of Omega-3 oils and other high-value applications from algae biomass. Currently, Cellana produces industrial-scale quantities of ReNew™ Algae — high-value algae biomass rich in Omega-3 nutritional oils, proteins, fuel-grade oils, cosmetic-grade oils, acids, and polysaccharides, as well as other valuable micronutrients — at its Kona Demonstration Facility in Hawaii.
- Cellulosic Sugar Producers Cooperative (CSPC) has initiated an equity campaign to develop a corn stover and wheat straw to dextrose supply chain in southwestern Ontario. CSPC will engage with growers in the region to supply corn stover and wheat straw to a planned dextrose facility previously announced by Comet Biorefining to be located in Sarnia, Ontario. As part of the supply chain, CSPC members will own an equity stake in the facility, which will need 75,000 tonnes of biomass based on 55,000 acres. As part of the equity campaign, CSPC will coordinate field demonstrations of stover aggregation and will hold outreach ‘town hall’ meetings for prospective members.
- The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) has issued a call to leaders from the biotechnology, bioenergy, chemical, consumer products manufacturing, and agricultural industries as well as academia and financial sectors industries to submit panel session proposals for the 2017 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology. The conference will be held July 23-26, 2017 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal in Montréal, Canada. For more information on the conference or to submit a proposal, please visit http://www.bio.org/worldcongress.
