Algae Production Certification Course was very informative 5
I attended a packed house of algaepreneurs for the algae production certification course given by the National Algae Association last week. It was extremely informative and the instructors were great! Even though research will continue, algaepreneurs are united in building out commercial-scale algae production plants throughout the US using all off-the-shelf existing proven technologies. Algae patents and IP have no value today unless you have commercial-scale algae production.
Thu May 06 2010 09:07:41 PM by FatAlgae
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How true a statement is that "Algae patents and IP have no value today unless you have commercial-scale algae production." How many PBR's have been patented that could never make the grade in the real world? This is a major problem: Academia verses the commercial world.
Has anyone attended the course of
Aaron Baum ?
He is supposed to charge $ 150 for the cultivation training course and $ 150 for the kit to grow spirulina algae to grow at home.
Given the urgency to save the earth from global warming, algae related Patents should be time bound.
After that anyone can make use of it.
May be we need to arrive at some method of reimbursing the patent owner.
Or may be the patent can come up for auction after a period of one year.
These are just my suggestions.
With all due respect, algae researchers have spent over $2.5 billion dollars at US universities on algae but have not commercialized anything to date. Their focus is on research and not commercialization. The DOE has rooms of IP and patents sitting on shelves. Unless there is commercial-scale algae production none of anyones IP will have any value. PBR's, harvestors and extraction systems are being scaled-up in the US. The National Algae Association (the trade association) has set up an Engineering Consortium to scale to 110 acres. They are made up of the largest water process engineers, plastic extruders, harvester and extraction equipment manufacturers in the world. They are all working together in collaboration to lower the CAPEX and OPEX for the industry, inputs/outputs, footprints etc. Once the first 110 acre commercial algae plant is built, IP will have more value than they have today.
The next NAA Algae Production Certification Course will be given in Houston, Texas on Jan. 12, 2011.