National Algae Association Claims That Algae Won't Be Grown in Washington, DC

Houston, TX, October 01, 2014 --(PR.com)-- After over 6 decades of time, and billions of dollars spent at the direction of the Department of Energy and other government agencies, one thing is for sure – algae for fuels will never be grown in Washington, D.C.

"The algae production industry does not need lobbyists who have no experience in commercial growing, harvesting and extraction and no knowledge of the commercial algae production industry. They don’t care to acknowledge that they have no idea how to scale anything out of a lab and into commercial production to build out the supply channel," according to National Algae Association Executive Director Barry Cohen. "Algae technologies must be proven to work outside the lab in a commercial scale before they can ever have any value to the algae production industry, and instead of focusing on that stage, Washington chose to spend the time and money developing new research programs, effectively sytmying commercial algae production. Algae researchers lack the hands-on experience of working with private industry in commercial scale-up and deployment efforts, and the Department of Energy is relying on that expertise to build out an industry," continued Cohen, "and writing standards based on out-dated technologies that will never be used in commercial production is misleading. After 60 years of algae research, private industry along with private and foreign investment have taken over the task of commercial scale-up the algae production industry in the US and around the world."

Cohen said that "...algae has a great story to tell, but unless lobbyists, algae czars and algae caucuses take the time to learn about commercial algae production, it will continue to be nothing more than a never-ending research pipe dream. If an algae technology cannot be proven to work outside the lab or in commercial production it has no value to our industry."

In other news, National Algae Association is pleased to announce that Natural Algae Production, LLC is in commercial production on private property located near NAA's third incubator facility in Louisiana. "This facility has combined proven technologies with what we're calling Cajun Engineering to get the project into commercial production in 6 months, including weather delays," according to NAA Executive Director Barry Cohen, "and far less capital than was originally anticipated, which has pleased the private investment group providing financial support."

www.nationalalgaeassociation.com