Good morning!
For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I trust you spent a wonderful day with family and friends.
Algae to petroleum in about 30 minutes
The story went viral this week: Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are claiming success in perfecting a method that can transform a pea-soupy solution of algae into crude oil by pressure cooking it for about 30 minutes. (Forbes)
As published in Forbes, here's a photo of the algae feedstock (front) and resulting “bio-crude” behind it. (Courtesy PNNL)
You can read the rest of the fascinating story on Forbes and CNBC.
What's special about this process is that you don't need algae oil, or even dry algae. You can use a simple "algae soup", close to what our own algae harvester produces.
Yes, we can contribute to making crude oil from algae.
Right now, we're helping the algae industry make valuable products like astaxanthin. Meanwhile, this latest research breakthrough is one more step toward providing an alternative to petroleum itself.
The Algae Screen ships!
Last month, independent testing showed our Algae Screen™ to be key to "controlling microbiological conditions for commercial algae producers".
Now, a major commercial algae producer has ordered our first commercial Model S60, and it was shipped out two days ago.
Here's a photo of the unit, as built and shipped by our Operations Team, headed by Andrew Davies. Nice work team!
Each of these small, inexpensive beauties is designed to optimize the growth of an algae pond or tank, by effectively controlling microscopic predators. Predator control is critical to commercial algae production.
As you know, we are in the licensing business. Proving our technology in the field is the critical first step. The Algae Screen will be proving itself in the new year.
If you are interested in your own S60, please contact our sales team.
Here's to a great year ahead, for you and yours!
Thanks as always for your loyal support,
Riggs and Team
Riggs Eckelberry
President & CEO
OriginOil, Inc. (OOIL)
PS: for a Spanish-language report by the Univision network on last week's Showcase Launch, please click here