The Alternative Aviation Fuels Pavilion at this week’s ILA Berlin Airshow presented by Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) and Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany (AIREG) will showcase developments along the entire biofuel supply chain, including leading feedstock producers and biorefining technology suppliers.
The Australian firm, Algae.Tec, which is working with German aviation giant Lufthansa, will present its algae to aviation biofuels technology at the specialist pavilion.
Last month, the company commissioned Australia’s first advanced engineered algae to biofuels facility, Shoalhaven One, in New South Wales (NSW).
During the inauguration, NSW’s Minister for Resources and Energy the Honourable Chris Hartcher, MP, activated the solar light system and starting the first algae growth, and took the opportunity to talk about creating a new Australian fuel industry and moving away from dependence on imported fuel.
Putting Australia on the energy supply map
“This is a new source of aviation fuel,” he said. “It offers a cutting edge technology that NSW and Australia can take advantage of, and grow Australia in the world of energy supply.”
Algae.Tec Executive Chairman Roger Stroud said Algae.Tec offers NSW and Australia energy security at a time when traditional fossil fuel companies are leaving the local market.
Algae.Tec was founded in 2007 and has developed a high-yield enclosed algae growth and harvesting system, the McConchie-Stroud System, designed to grow non-GMO algae on an industrial scale, and produce biofuels that replace predominantly imported fossil fuels.
At a time when the biofuels industry is under increasing pressure from environmentalists to answer concerns about the impact on food prices and land availability of growing feedstocks for biofuels, algae and other second-generation feedstocks that are not food crops, may offer a sustainable alternative to first-generation feedstocks such as corn or sugar cane.
According to Algae.Tec, its technology “has demonstrated exceptional performance in productivity, product yield, carbon dioxide sequestration, and production unit footprint requirements versus agricultural crops and other competitive algae processes in the industry. The Algae.Tec solution is less than one tenth the land footprint of pond growth options, while its enclosed module system is designed to deliver the highest yield of algae per hectare, and solves the problem of food-producing land being turned over for biofuel production.”
“Algae.Tec offers the promise of home grown transport fuels (aviation and diesel), which is the number one energy security priority for countries like the USA and increasingly Australia,” adds Stroud.
Algae.Tec also has projects with Holcim Lanka, joint venture discussions in China, and a manufacturing base in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). The Company is also in talks with relevant firms in NSW, Brazil and the United States.
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