March 4, 2012 — State of Ohio Governor John Kasich has signed into law House Bill 276 defining the production of algae, Algaculture, as agriculture in the Ohio Revised Code. Sponsored by Representative Jim Buchy and former Representative and current Senator, Lou Gentile, HB 276 received extraordinary bi-partisan support and was passed unanimously in both the Ohio House and Senate.
State of Ohio Governor John Kasich signed into law House Bill 276 defining the production of algae, Algaculture, as agriculture in the Ohio Revised Code. Sponsored by Representative Jim Buchy and former Representative, current Senator Lou Gentile, HB 276 received extraordinary bipartisan support and was passed unanimously in both the Ohio House and Senate.
“We applaud the commitment of Ohio’s leadership for their vision and support of the emerging algae industry for both business and agriculture. HB 276 provides the right regulatory framework to properly cultivate the growing algal industry, attract investment dollars into the state of Ohio, and provide regulatory clarity. Defining Algaculture as agriculture in the Ohio Revised Code places Ohio in a leadership position while making a powerful statement that Ohio is open for business and welcomes investment in this emerging industry,” said Ross Youngs, CEO and Founder of Algaeventure Systems.
By Lynne Meyer | Thursday, November 17, 2011
Most people refer to it as “pond scum.” To Ross Youngs, however, it’s a miracle of nature and nothing short of “vital to the future of civilization.”
The “it” is algae, and, according to Youngs, this microscopic plant provides tremendous value to everyone on the planet. “Every single plant on earth can trace it’s roots to algae,” he explains. “This little plant is at the base of the food chain, and so many other organisms completely depend on it. In fact,” he notes, “algal biomass worldwide is less than one percent of the biomass on earth, but it provides more than 50 percent of the oxygen produced on earth annually. That makes it a pretty important organism.” Continue reading »
In the AVS Fall 2011 Newsletter, you’ll learn about new collaborations, incentives from the State of Ohio, participation in a new COSI exhibit, expansion of our Marysville, OH headquarters, and more. Click the link below for the full stories.
By Ty Higgins | October 21, 2011
In Marysville, Algaeventure is working on new technologies that use algae to make products like plastics, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and possibly fuels. See how algae could be a nice complement to much of Ohio agriculture.
The U.S. DOE’s Advance Research Projects Agency-Energy targets the “white space” of existing energy research.
By Erin Voegele | September 2011
A unique development program housed under the U.S. Department of Defense has achieved a rich history of game-changing technological innovation since its inception in the 1950s. That program, now known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, played a key role in the development of invaluable technologies, including the Internet, stealth technology and global positioning systems (GPS). The agency was specifically designed to be small, flexible, flat and autonomous. In other words, the agency was able to work around many of the bureaucratic barriers and red tape that can plague less nimble research agencies, allowing it to quickly shift gears to support and expedite the development of technologies that face steep risks but overwhelmingly high rewards, if proven successful.
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by Jeff Bell
Date: Friday, August 26, 2011, 6:00am EDT
With nearly $2.5 million in state incentives in hand, Algaeventure Systems Inc. is turning its attention to landing private equity funds to finance a $9 million expansion in Marysville.
The company, whose technology is helping establish algae as a biofuel, plans to start making its case to private funding sources in September, said Algaeventure founder and CEO Ross Youngs. With funding, he said, the 3-year-old company will be able to boost its employee count from 35 to more than 200 in three years and play a key role in making algae a viable energy source and key ingredient in animal …
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AVS has released its newsletter for Summer 2011 detailing new additions to the team, as well as the company’s first participation in a US Congressional Hearing! To view the Summer 2011 newsletter please click the link below.
It may be only pond scum, but Ross Youngs believes algae “is critical to the future of civilization.” Don’t laugh.
By Nancy McKibben | July 2011
While the wind turbines turn and the solar panels gather rays, a new contender has floated onto the alternative energy scene: the humble algae plant. And algae’s prime advocate in Central Ohio is entrepreneur Ross Youngs.
Tall and affable, dressed in a green sweater and black jeans that fall short of nerdiness, but do not aspire to fashion, the 53-year-old is the CEO and founder of three Marysville companies: Univenture, Algaeventure Systems and AlterE. He could have retired early on the success of Univenture’s innovative, soy-based packaging products. Instead, he has become an algae evangelist, winning a $6 million U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) merit grant to advance the algae technology he invented.
In the quest to find cheap and abundant sources of energy, many companies and research organizations have turned to algae. Much of their research has been focused on maximizing algal growth. However, increased algal growth can often become harmful if in a natural setting. One algae company, Algaeventure Systems, is actually looking at ways to lessen the effects of these “harmful algal blooms” (HABs) in the environment. Dr. Stephanie Smith is the lead scientist at Algaeventure and answered the following questions about HABs.
1. What are the main causes of harmful algal blooms (HABs)?
The causes vary from site to site, and there are typically multiple factors that converge at the same time to contribute to a bloom. It boils down to this: why didn’t the algae bloom before, or why don’t they always bloom? In other words, there are natural checks and balances on algal populations (all populations, really), and when those checks and balances are disrupted it can lead to a bloom.
| Friday, 03 June 2011 | |
| By MIKE BURKHOLDER Managing Editor ST. MARYS — Officials with a firm that conducted a test project last year on Grand Lake St. Marys say they plan to maintain a local presence to further their research.On Wednesday, officials from Algaeventure Systems issued a statement to The Evening Leader regarding a silica test project the firm conducted in September at Grand Lake St. Marys. The $25,000 project involved adding silica, essentially sand, in a 2.5-acre portion of the lake to help feed diatoms. Diatoms, if conditions are suitable, out-compete bluegreen algae. “While the treatment was clearly non-harmful to the marina or adjacent waters, results with respect to an impact on diatoms or the late stage harmful algal bloom (HAB) that was already underway were inconclusive,” the statement said. “Systems and technology were advanced based upon what was learned during testing at GLSM. AVS is continuing its technology development on a 40-acre Ohio lake in order to strive for an economically viable method to remove excess nutrients from natural lakes in an environmentally friendly manner. For the purpose of the silica technology, AVS and/or its collaborators will continue to monitor GLSM waters during 2011.” Dr. Stephanie Smith, chief scientist at Algaeventure Systems, said researchers learned a lot from the test. “I think what we learned, not just from the initial trial, but maybe more important in the monitoring, is that the situation in your lake is really complex,” Smith told The Evening Leader. “There’s probably not any single-bullet treatment that will reverse it.” |
Courtesy US Science, Space, Technology Committee Website
Washington, D.C. – June 2, 2011 — Algaeventure Systems (AVS) was invited to testify at a Congressional Hearing on Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) on June 1, 2011 to discuss strategies for mitigating HABs in freshwater environments. AVS Chief Scientist Dr. Stephanie Smith addressed the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Energy and Environment Subcommittee regarding a new piece of legislation that aims to develop a comprehensive national strategy for responding to and reducing HABs in coastal, marine and fresh waters.
HABs are increasing globally in both frequency and magnitude and pose a serious threat to human health as well as local economies that depend on afflicted waters for tourism, recreation and real estate revenue. A summer 2010 proliferation of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in Grand Lake St. Marys, Ohio’s largest inland lake, caused the City of Celina $60-80 million in lost revenue, as well as several cases of human and animal illness.
Dr. Smith shared her extensive experience with freshwater HABs and AVS’ unique perspective as a developer of algal processing and remediation technologies to identify a number of key considerations in creating a HAB action plan. Among these considerations is the need to bolster the knowledge base and monitoring effort of freshwater HABs in inland lakes, as strategies for addressing marine HABs may not suit freshwater blooms.
Marysville, Ohio—May 17, 2011: Algaeventure Systems (AVS) is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Stephanie Smith to our team. As the company’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Smith will oversee the development of scientific programs and assist with the development of algal growth systems, processing equipment and related intellectual property.
Click Here for the Entire Press Release
Algae industry awash in new technologies to address key commercialization barrier: will they pluck algae, and the algae industry, out of the water?
Last month in the Digest we ranked “Algae extraction” at #5 on the list of “Transformers” – technologies that would rock the bio world. We wrote:
“While we are on the subject of the special challenges of growing algae, there’s the problem of getting the algae out of the water, or the water out of the algae. Given that a decent microalgae concentration is around 0.1 percent, you have to remove 1000 gallons of water per gallon to get a gallon of dry algal biomass, which has about 50,000 BTUs or so. So even if you are expending just a handful of BTUs per gallon to move the water, you’re dangerously close to using more energy to produce algal fuels than the fuel contains…For sure, no algae fuel company will emerge at scale without a solution to this one.
It’s true. You have to have this one solved. It’s mandatory. But the field s full of contenders now – in fact, half the problem is figuring out which technology to partner with. They are popping up these past twelve months at a rate of around one technology every sixty days – three new ones since mid January, as a matter of fact.
That’s, in part, the rational for the National Algae Association to hold an Algae Growing, Harvesting, Extraction Technologies and Networking Conference, this week in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. For those who won’t have a chance to network at the NAA meeting, we have this state of the art review.
A new research and development center in Ohio helps spur the development of a regional algae industry.
By Erin Voegele | April 19, 2011
Ohio isn’t the first place that comes to mind when the topic is algae. Traditionally, the Southwest has been the the focal point for algae projects under development, but that is about to change. The Center for Algal Engineering Research and Commercialization under development at the University of Toledo is focusing attention on the potential for algae cultivation in the Midwest. Continue reading »
Algaeventure Systems SLS Technology Featured in AURI Dryer Investigation
Post-digester manure solids refer to the material left after manure has been processed in an anaerobic digester and passed through a separation process to physically remove part of the water fraction. The Vincent Press or the Fan Separator is often, but not always, used to accomplish this step.
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A few more startups out of ARPA-E
More than 300 companies presented at this year’s ARPA-E Summit. Many were familiar names, including Codexis, Cree and FloDesign. But many were less familiar. In addition to Echogen, three companies stood out.
Algaeventure Systems (AVS): Based in Ohio, AVS seeks to develop and commercialize a new method for dewatering algae. In 2009, ARPA-E awarded AVS a $6 million grant to pursue development of its mechanical-electrical harvesting, dewatering and drying (HDD) system. This week, AVS will close a friends and family fundraising round.
AVS is tackling a significant barrier to industrial-scale production of algal biofuels. Today, centrifugation is the most efficient technique for turning dilute algal cultures into a concentrated sludge from which lipids can be extracted. But using centrifugal forces to separate solids and liquids is an energy-inefficient process that consumes 30 percent to 50 percent of the total cost of cultivating algae.
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AVS has released its newsletter for Spring 2011 highlighting collaborative achievements across its portfolio of technologies. To view the Spring 2011 newsletter please click the link below.
Algaeventure Systems Spring 2011 Newsletter
Submitted by April Saylor on February 24, 2011 – 3:57pm
Last week, we told you about the launch of an “Entrepreneurial Mentor Corps,” a one-year pilot program to connect clean energy startups with mentors who can help support these companies through early-stage challenges and increase theirchance for success. The program is a partnership of the Department of Energy and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and targets clean energy small businesses who have previously received financial assistance from the Department through the Recovery Act.
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