Heliae begins work on commercial algae production facility

Algae technology company Heliae has commenced work on a commercial demonstration facility in Arizona that it says will “showcase the scalability and economics of its proprietary algae technology platform”. The company plans to build several more facilities throughout the world.

“Over the last two years, we have made significant strides in research and development to create a comprehensive algae technology solution,” stated Dan Simon, President and CEO of Heliae. “Today, we ‘walk the talk’ as we roll out and prove the technology that will allow our partners to grow, harvest and extract algae on a commercial scale.”

Algae is a sustainable alternative for use in the functional foods, animal feed, fuel, chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

“This is a critical step for Heliae and the algae industry. Harnessing the full value of this plant will help generations overcome constraints in soil fertility, animal and fish feeds, human nutrition and health, and sustainable transportation fuels. Today, Heliae takes the world a step closer to realising this potential,” said Frank Mars, co-founder and chairman of the board for Heliae.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, the company also sold its first barrel of algae-based jet fuel to SkyNRG - a step it said marks a “milestone in the partnership with a long-term objective of producing sustainable jet fuel from algae”.

Author Julian Cribb predicts that algae may become the world’s biggest cropping industry in the future as we find new ways to feed the increasing human population sustainably and cheaply.