POSEIDON : the hybrid wind and wave system tested at sea with an intelligent control system.

LOLLAND - (Denmark) -  26/10/2011 - Marine Renewable Energy Ltd.
Original Article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and edited by Christopher Longmore

The  POSEIDON hybrid technology wind/wave system was invented a dozen years ago. A prototype has been in the sea for two years and has now been linked to the Danish grid by Floating Power Plant. The company continues to offer further proof of its dynamism. Floating Power Plant has now teamed up with Critical Software to develop a control system to mount on the test platform at sea. 

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CURRENT POWER SWEDEN : a vertical tidal turbine

(STOCKHOLM - Sweden) - 25 /10/2011 - Marine Renewable Energy Ltd
Original Article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and edited by Christopher Longmore

This is a vertical axis tidal turbine directly linked to a synchronous fixed magnet generator, based on the same prnciples as the Vertiwind turbine and the tidal turbine HARVEST - similar but adapted to a marine environment.

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UK Government to adjust renewable energy subsidies

 

London - (United Kingdom)

26/10/2011

Article by Christopher LONGMORE for Marine Renewable Energy Ltd

The amount of support to offshore wind will decline over the next five years, it will be cut less than had been planned, under the proposals put out for consultation today. Under the plans, smaller-scale wave and tidal stream projects, which harness the flow of the tide, would receive many times more support than other types of renewable energy in a bid to encourage those technologies. Illustrated is a wave power unit currently being installed for Stewart Island and the Raz de Sein off the French Brittany coast - an area rich in untapped wave and tidal power.

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SKYSAILS POWER :High Altitude Wind Energy

BRISTOL-  (United Kingdom)
21/10/2011 - Marine Renewable Energy
Original Article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and edited by Christopher Longmore

A few weeks ago, GL Garrad Hassan,  a subsidiary of Germanischer Lloyd, one of the most highly regarded consutancy practices in the field of renewable energy - particularly marine renewables -  published the first report ever into a little known technology: High Altitude Wind Energy (HAWE). This exhaustive report analyses both the potential of high altitude wind energy and current technologies, their level of development, and market potential, as well as the technical and reglementary challenges to this emerging industry that further pushes back the frontiers of offshore wind. It seems that among the 20 companies involved, one, Skysails, often mentioned here, is the best placed for the future.

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LANGLEE WAVE POWER installs a wave power plant in New Zealand.

STEWART ISLAND - (New Zealand) -  20/10/2011 - Mer-Veille-MRE
Original Article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and edited by Christopher Longmore
Anxious not to get left behind by its Australian neighbour in the field of renewable energy, New Zealand is increasing the marine energy projects off its shores:

• 600m dollars for Crest Energy 200 x 1.2 Mw tidal turbines project off Kaipara Harbour
• 1.8m dollars for a wave energy project with the Norwegian Langlee Wave Power and Tangaroa Energy intended to power Stewart Island by 2013.

 These projects have been under way for some months now, but as is the case all over the world, recent government financial aid suddenly made them visible to the numerous possible investors all over the world.

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NAUTICA WINDPOWER : a new idea in floating wind turbines

LAKE ERIE-  (USA) - 19/10/2011 - Mer-veille-MRE
Original Article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and edited by Christopher Longmore

Nautica Windpower has recently been selected by the American Department of Energy (DOE) in the context of its aid program for technical innovation. This program is intended to support initiatives that may help reduce the costs of energy produced by future deep water American offshore wind farms. This is precisely the sector occupied by Nautica Windpower in the USA, that has developed for this particular environment a totally new concept and design of floating twin blade turbine capable of deep water installation - the AFT (Advanced Floating Turbine).

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PARISTECH : Masters Degree in "Science and Technology of Renewable Energy"

 
PARIS - (France) -  17/10/2011 -- Mer-Veille/Marine Renewable Energy
Original Article by  Francis Rousseau, translated and edited by Christopher Longmore.

 ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology) announced this week that it is offering a Masters degree in "The Science and Technology of Renewable Energies" in partnership with Total and the École Polytechnique, and with the support of EDF, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Saint Gobain and Schneider Electric. This top level course directed by the world class Ecole Polytechnique is addressed to students from all over the world that have graduated from world class universities in engineering, mechanics, or physics. They can handle some 40 professionals or researchers in the fields of generation, storage, and distribution of different types of renewable energies including MRE (Marine Renewable Energy).

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DCNS, Fortum, & AW Energy team up for wave power in France

PARIS - (France ) - 13/11/2011 - Mer-Veille-MRE -

Original article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and adapted by Christopher Longmore

On October 11 2011, DCNS (a sponsor of our publications) signed a letter of intent with the Norwegian giant FORTUM stating their intention to launch a joint feasability study into the viabiity of a pilot project of wave power electricty generation in France. FORTUM specialises in both nuclear and renewables power generation. DCNS hitherto a global giant in naval ship-building, thus becomes the only industrial group in the world with interests in ALL the marine renewable energy sectors,  from floating offshore wind turbines (Winflo), tidal turbines (OpenHydro),  Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), civilian under-sea nuclear with the revolutionary under-sea nuclear power station Flexblue, and now wave power. Capitalising on its know-how, industrial strength, and expertise, DCNS covers the whole gamut of these new energy production systems from their design, to construction and later their maintenance.

---

Last January, DCNS took an 8% stake in the Irish company OpenHydro, who are world leaders in the tidal turbine field (see articles of 20 july 2011,  24 august 2011 et 1 september 2011). That deal allowed the two companies to converge their skills in the tidal turbine market. DCNS is also planning to develop and build a 10Mw ocean thermal energy plant in Martinique (see article of 29 november 2010), and to supply the island of Reunion with a land based prototype ocean thermal energy generator (article of 9 september 2011). Among the wave power systems involved in the letter of intent DCNS signed with FORTUM, one seems to stand out - the AW Power Wave Roller® that we described in 2008 and 2009 and again in 2010 (see. article of 29 June 2010). 

In thier Joint Press Release published on 11/10/2011, (surprisingly only available in French),  DCNS and FORTUM enthused that the project was in line with the ambitions of both companies.  Thus Bernard Planchais, Managing Director of DCNS, said in  substance  "DCNS has all the skills to bring the appropriate industrial solutions to FORTUM (...) DCNS is ready and determined to play a major role in this market working alongside FORTUM on projects the precursors of  full industrial deployment.". Matti Ruotsala, Executive Vice-President of FORTUM, for his part insisted on the fact that  "The potential of wave energy justifies the investment in research into such power stations. We are convinced that wave energy is going to play an important role in the next generation of renewable energy systems. To work on the pilot demonstrator project for wave energy in France in the coming months will allow us to make considerable progress in R & D for the future of this energy source".

DCNS, with a workforce of 12,500, turnover of €2,5Bn and the winner of the Trophée national de l’entreprise citoyenne under the patronage of the President of the French Senate features here often and is well known throughout France, but the same is not true of the Norwegian FORTUM, almost unknown in France. Born in 1998 of the fusion of the two Norwegian companies Imatran Voima (IVO) and Neste Oyj, FORTUM has a payroll of 10,585 and its 2010 turnover was €6.3Bn - (Source: Fortum). Mainly specialised in the development of renewable energy power stations based on nuclear technology, hydraulics, geothermal, and onshore wind in North and East Europe, since 2007, the group has been actively involved in wave power.  They have participated in the construction of pilot projects in Sweden and Portugal. In 2010, 86% of the energy produced by FORTUM in Europe was free of CO2 emissions. This was lso why FORTUM decided to participate in the calls for tender for the renewal of the hydroelectric concessions in France, as was announced at the end of 2010. 

Fortum's interest in the potential of wave power has taken it in two technical directions: surface wave technology (under study in Sweden) and deep water wave technology (under study in Portugal). This last technology was developed in close co-oepration with the Finnish company AW Energy that invented and patented the Wave Roller® technology. It is this that is considered to be "an option that could be used in the project to be developed in France by Fortum and DCNS ". It is therefore worthy of further study. The Wave Roller® energy recovery system, first mentioned here in 2008 with other technologies then little known obtained a €3m EU grant in the context of the 7th Framework plan (2007-2013). (See. article of 5 October 2009) (French only) and started to generate wider interest. The prototype deployed at Peniche (Portugal) is of 3 x100 kv (voir photo left) and was destined to be installed in between 10 and 25 metres of water depth. Nothing is visible above the water or from the beach. There is no perceptible noise generated, and the process although very simple (or maybe precislely because it is so simple) has been designed to need no toxic or polluting lubricant. To carry out this Portuguese trial successfully, AW-Energy surrounded itself with European company heavyweights like Bosch-Rexroth and ABB, world leaders in energy and automation technologies, and also with national champions like the Portuguese Eneolica. With regard to the technology itself, we have often told the story but it retains all its original freshness. In 1993 the finnish diver Rauno Koivusaari, while exploring a wreck was struck by the regular movement imparted by the swell to a heavy metal door. Rauno wondered if the energy that moved such a heavy door could not be exploited for other purposes. Of this good idea were born in April and July 2008 the first two Wave Roller® prototypes - a kind of heavy door fixed to the seabed, the regular movement of which indeed started to generate electricity. Details here. 

As well as the story, this leads to the reflection concerning the overall marked preferences all over the world for this kind of "panel" wave power unit, like the famous Oyster of the British Aquamarine Power or the equally famous BioWAVE of the Australian BioPower Systems. This choice is being made to the detriment of the  OWC (Oscillating Water Column), like Wave Buoy, submerged or partly submerged like Powerbuoy from Ocean Power Technologies or CETO from Carnegie Wave Energy or even Pelamis Wave to mention but the most famous and most tested to date. The surface invisibility of the panel systems may perhaps be the explanation, but each technology has its pros and cons and the jury is still out.

Sources:  Sites linked and mentionned.
Photos1: Wave Roller Operational Principals ©AW Energy. 2 :  Artist's impression of Wave Roller © AW Energy. 3.  Wave Roller Panel ©AW Energy. 4  Wave Roller 3x100 kv system ©AW Energy 5. Buoy system © FORTUM

The total or partial reproduction, by any person or entity in any media,or  document of information posted on this blog-media without prior permission from Marine Renewable Energy Ltd and mention of their origin, date and author (s) ( s) is strictly prohibited and will be prosecuted.

Bottom Wave Generator : a wave powered electricty generator.

NEWPORT BEACH - (California- Etats-Unis) -12/10/2011 - Mer-Veille-MRE

Original article by Francis Rousseau. Edited and translated by Christopher Longmore

While some engineers continue to develop highly complex systems to recover energy from the sea, others, thankfully, are still focussed on improving systems so simple and ingenious that they leave you gasping. This is the case with the Bottom Wave Generator, developed by the American company Green Wave Energy Corp, generous with videos to illustrate its invention! It consists of a cylindrical tube held vertically in the water. Like all tubes kept vertical in a liquid that is moving, water rises and falls generating electiricity as it does so. Simple, but someone had to think of it, and then actually put it into practice. As of now such a device exisits, and... it works, and, according to its buiilder, costs but US$20.000 per unit.

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EOLE-RES and IBERDROLA : partnership to bid for French offshore wind farms.

AVIGNON - (France) - 10/10/2011 - Mer-Veille-MRE

Original Article by Francis Rousseau - edited and translated by Christopher Longmore.

In a joint Press Release, the French company EOLE-RES based in Avignon, and the Spanish giant multi-national Iberdrola announced last week that they has signed an exclusive partnership agreement to respond to the calls for tender in two of the five zones designated by the French government in July.

EOLE-RES  thus jions the consortium initiated by Iberdrola Renovables even before the calls for tender were issued (see. article of 1 july 2011) with the French companies  Areva Wind and  Technip, an engineering and construction company already heavily involved in the exploitation of vertical axis offshore wind farms. (see article of 20 january 2011) (french only). They plan to tender for the zones off St. Brieuc (Côte d'Armor) and that off Saint Nazaire for a combined installed capacity of between 900 and 1,250Mw






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GE : superconductivity for a new generation of offshore turbines

NISKAYUNA - (United States) - 07/10/2011 - Mer-Veille-MRE
Original Article by Francis Rousseau  - edited and adapted by Christopher Longmore.

A the end of this summer, GE finally authorised one of its researchers, Ruben Fair, to reveal part of the direction of the research being undertaken by the Machine Labs of GE Global Research at Niskayuna since the beginning of December 2010. The announcement coincides with GE announcing that it's GE Global Research lab was to receive funding of US$3m from the US Department of Energy to complete its research program into a new generation of offshore turbines based on superconductivity. This would facilitate the construction of 15Mw offshore turbines.


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Bay of Fundy - (Canada) -  06/10/2011 - 3B Conseils-Mer-Veille-MRE -
Orignial Article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and adapted by Christopher Longmore.

It`s at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre (FORCE) in the Bay of Fundy that Marine Current Turbines (MCT) will soon be testing the latest of its Seagen tidal turbines - the U-Seagen. MCT's choice of location is partly explained by the fact that the Bay of Fundy centre, with the colossal weight of water that rushes in and out of Minas Passage, is the ideal testing ground for tidal turbines. If it stands up to this, there's a good chance that it will stand up to anything else! It's a sort of Canadian version of the pioneeering EMEC in northern Scotland, that is used by many French companies including Alstom, but also Atlantis Resources and OpenHydro use it to test their units in the quest to ensure that tidal turbines are genuinely competitive in the renewable energies market.


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Novel High Performance Energy-Storage Membrane

Original Article from ScienceDaily edited and adapted by Christopher LONGMORE for MRE.

A team from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI), led by principle investigator Dr Xie Xian Ning, has developed a novel energy-storage membrane.

Electrical energy storage and its management are becoming urgent issues due to climate change and energy shortage. Existing technologies such as rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors are based on complicated configurations including liquid electrolytes, and suffer from difficulties in scaling-up and high fabrication costs. There is also growing public concern and awareness of the impact of traditional energy sources on the environment, spurring a continued search for alternative, green, sustainable energy sources, particularly marine renewables.


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CARNEGIE WAVE ENERGY delivers a Ceto4 to Reunion.

SAINT-PIERRE-  (Reunion- France) -  30/09/2011 - 3B Conseils-Mer-Veille-MRE -
Original article by Francis Rousseau, edited and translated by Christopher Longmore
The Australian marine technologies developer Marine Carnegie Wave Energy has just delivered the first of its fourth generation machines - the  Ceto 4 - to the island of Reunion.

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Areva chooses Le Havre

Le Havre - France. 30/09/2011. MRE
By Christopher Longmore

The French press ("Les Échos") reports that the national nucelar energy champion Areva has selected Le Havre for a new manufacturing base for offshore wind turbines in France. As well as its nuclear activities, it is also heavily committed to renewable energies. This decision is a consequence of the French governmémt`s recent €10Bn. call for tenders to build 5 offshore wind farms.

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OWA calls for Anglo-German co-operation in offshore wind.

LONDON - (U.K.) -  28/09/2011 - 3B Conseils-Mer-Veille-MRE
Original Article by Francis Rousseau  - edited and translated by Christopher Longmore

Since 2003, some 500 offshore wind turbines were built and 180 were installed in 2010 in the UK. They have a notional capacity of just over 1.5 GW, while the estimated capacity for development licenses granted by the Crown Estate in Round 3 is of 33 GW, equivalent to 5,500 wind turbines ( assuming an average size of 6 MW).


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Marine Energy in Scotland - an example worth watching?

Brest - France. 27/09/11. MRE.

Even on a sunny day the rugged coastline of Caithness on the north-eastern tip of Scotland, feels as though it is on the edge of the world. The remoteness of this most northerly part of the British mainland was why, in 1955, the government sited an experimental nuclear reactor at Dounreay, a few miles from Thurso. Yet even though the reactor is being decommissioned and its 1,900 associated jobs are dwindling, locals are upbeat—unlike those in most of recession-hit Britain. There may be some lessons for other similarly remote areas of Europe where economic/industrial regeneration is an urgent priorty -like Brittany in France. Not for nothing is the western tip of Brittany also know locally as the "end of the world!".


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French CGT union suports cross-Channel partnerships

Brest (France) - 23/09/11 MRE-BB/CBL

On the same day as the cross-channel marine renewables partnership agreement between Brittany and South West England was signed, the communist led French trade union CGT published a very well informed report setting out its position on marine renewables generally and in Brittany specifically. Predictably committed to state involvement in the electricity industry, the CGT was supportive of cross-channel initiatives in marine renewables. It has also always been supportive of a policy of diversification of energy supply.

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€5 million Euros project to develop marine renewable energy in Cornwall.

​
MERiFIC (Marine Energy in Far Peripheral and Island Communities) is a collaborative project supported by the EU that draws together universities and leading research and marine organisations from the Westcountry and Brittany in France.


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VALOREM and PMVE-BARD interested in Bordeaux site

BORDEAUX (France) - 21/09/2011 - 3B Conseils/MRE Original Article By Francis Rousseau - editted and translated by Christopher Longmore

Both Valorem with 400 MW of green energy installed at Bègles in France,  and  PMVE - a subsidiary of the German company Bard*, based in Bremen, which created a legal entity on site, responded to the call for projects launched by the Grand Port Maritime Bordeaux (GPMB) on June 15, 2011 (see article of 22 June 2011). The deadline for submissions was September 15. The winner should be known in November.  Several questions remained to which the GPMB has provided detailed responses in this article.

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HYDRA TIDAL - the tidal turbine with wooden blades

LOFOTEN Islands (Norway) - 20/09/2011 - 3B Conseils-Mer-Veille-MRE -
Original article by Francis Rousseau, editted and translated by Christopher Longmore

The Hydra Tidal turbine that equips the Morild station is capable of harnessing tidal and wave power. Its other particularity is that the turbine blades are made of laminated wood. In year long tests off the Lofoten Islands, the unit has performed very well  (see our French article of 21 october 2010). This summer it was awarded the prestiguious  Schweighofer Priz 2011. Do timber blades have advantages over composites, and if so, what are they?

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240 gigawatts by 2050?

BREST - (France) - 19/09/2011
Oringial article by Francis Rousseau  - translated and editted by Christopher Longmore

According to a recent study by the Carbon Trust that  follows the report Accelerating Marine Energy Report  CTC97, published in July, 240GW of marine energy capacity could be installed in the world of by 2050 including 190 MW for the UK alone. For now only ten megawatts has been installed worldwide and it is not expected to reach 1 GW (1,000 MW) until 2016-2017. 75% of this massive capacity planned to be installed by 2050 could be provided by the wave power alone (the United States has determined that it alone could provide 10% of its consumption) and the rest from wave and tidal power.  Ocean thermal energy (ETM) was counted for a very small part in the U.K.


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SHIHWA LAKE : the new tidal turbine electricity generating station supercedes the Rance

Thursday, September 8th 2011

SEOUL - (South Korea) - 08/09/2011 - 3B Conseils-MRE - 

Original Article by  Francis Rousseau translated and editted by Christopher Longmore.

According to the Korean press agency Yonhap, after 7 years work the tidal turbine electricity generator was inaugurated on August 29th by the Président of the Republic of South Korea  LeeMyung-bak. It is slightly more powerful than the Rance barrage system in Brittany (France) operated by EDF that was the first in the world and entered into service in 1967 with a capacity of  240 MW. The Lake Shihwa plant with its 254MW deprives Rance of  the pole position that it has held for 45 years!

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New England reinforcing its claim in the marine renwables field.

Edgartown (Massachusetts-USA) -29/08/2011-3B Conseils-BB.

New England has offered to  Marine Renewable Energy Centre (MREC) an area of roughly 300m2 (77,700 hectares)


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OpenHydro. End of the first quayside tests at Brest

photo AFP Brest France-UE)24/08/2011 - 3B Conseils - BB.

The timetable provided by EDF forecast that the final assembly and quayside tests of the OpenHydro machine to be installed at the Paimpol-Bréhat test site would be completed to-day.

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 The machine arrived on the 18th July at DCNS in Brest. (See the previous article).  EDF's objective is to install and test 4 OpenHydro sea turbines in live conditions, connecting them to a transformer on their site at Horaine. (See the article published by EDF). The first of the four ordered will be submerged off the island of Bréhat, in the department of  Côtes d'Armor in Brittany in Septmber 2011. The inauguration of the demonstration farm is planned for the end of summer 2012.

This innovative project has a €24m budget... a summary will be presented at the forthcoming entretiens Science et Ethiquein Brest lthis coming 17 & 18 November. At their web site, EDF mentions the incidence of the project on the environment have been reduced or offset in respect of all the various requirements  (water law, use of the marine public domain) and the Schéma de Mise en Valeur de la Mer du Trégor Goëlo. Yesterday Cécile Guérin (Radio Suisse Romande - RSR Savoirs) broadcast an interview about Charles Galland, the man in charge of hdraulic development at EDF. He gave details of the unit and its future installation, pointing out that the turbine, at 16m,  is 4 times the diameter of an Airbus engine, its tripod base, the laying of the underwater cables to link with the land based transformer, and laid on both granite and mud. He talked too about the acoustic aspect possiblly having an effect on fish, but more probably on cetaceans present in the area. They have a departure point sound print that will allow them to evaluate the future situation. The marine turbine is driven by the tidal current that varies in strength, and therefore creates a changing hydraulic noise, although the OpenHydro technology has the advantage that it has no rotating axis, so no rumble.

Sources : RSR, EDF, 3B Conseils,DCNS Voir ou revoir sur Canal C2, les interventions lors des entretiens Science et Ethique par Didier Calmels en 2008 (Ici) et en 2010 celle de Jean-Yves de Chaisemartin, maire de Paimpol Dossier de présentation EDF du 18 juillet 2011 à télécharger sur Mer-Veille.com - Cliquer sur Publications

Article : Brigitte Bornemann, translated and adapted by Christoher LONGMORE

The partial or total reproduction by any person physical or corporate on any media of the documents and information placed on-line in this blog without the prior written permisison of 3B Conseils and the citation of the source of that information, its date, and authors is strictly forbidden and will result in immediate legal action.

Biofuel from algae....

France (UE) 19/08/2011- 3B Conseils. BB. 2/2
Third generation biofuels bring together 70 companies all over the world. France is well placed. The Livre Turquoise  sets out the general position on the exploitation of algae and their future role.....  Among the developments, biofuel produced entirely from algae is seen as a 3rd generation energy source...

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In June 2010, at the Berlin Air Show, (ILA), EADS had the Diamond DA42NG (new generation)) flying daily on algal biofuel. 100 kilos of algae had been necessary to extract 22 litres of algal oil and from that 21 itres of biofuel. During its development phase this quantity of algae would have absorbed 182kgs of co2 and the biofuel obtained would have 8 times less fossil hydrocarbons than kerosene derived from petrol. The flights even showed a 5 to 10% fuel economy, and that without any modification of the engines. EADS had estimated that by 2030 biofuels could represent 30% of aviation fuel consumption.

The Livre Turquoise (French only) offers a synthesis of scientific, technical, and economic knowledge in the domain, an analysis of the two streams - micro and macro-algae (participants, projects, advantges, blockages, perspectives) and a road map with the different specific strategic proposals validated by all the participants. Its objective is to "Contribute to the organisation and development of the French algal industry sectors".


Adebiotech and their partners, the sponsors of excellence Pôle Mer Bretagne, and Pôle Mer PACA (both sponsors of our publications), together with Industries & Agro-Ressources (IAR), and Trimatec; the  clusters Atlanpole Blue Cluster and Algasud, le CEA, Veolia Environnement and Fermentalg made it possible to publish the  Livre Turquoise, (French only), at once a report and the minutes of the symposium «Algae, sectors of the future ». It can be downloaded from here. The report is addressed to all the participants be they government institutions, academics, or insutrialists, wanting information about current and potential applications for micro and macro-algae: food, health, cosmetics, the environment, green chemistry,, and of course biofuels.

A little history of algae with Biofutur, that is publishing a special edition on the occacion of the  BioMarine convention that is being held from 7th ton9th September in Nantes (France), jointly organised by Bio-Marine Pierre Erwes with Atlanpole Blue Cluster, initiative conjointe entre la CARENE et Atlanpole avec le soutien des régions Pays de la Loire et Poitou‐Charentes.

Pierre Tramoy of CBDMT, member of the  Board of Algénics, recalls that the main use of micro-algae for thousands of years was  for food, their commercial use only started in the 1960s in Japan with chlorelles, by Nhion Chlorella, followed by spirulines in 1969 in Mexico, by Sosa Texcoco.  The energy crisis of the 1970s showed the enormous potential of micro.algai biomass as renewable fertilizer and fuel stock. Ten years later almost 40 Asian fatories were producing a dozen tons of micro-algae, mainly chlorellas. The 1980s saw the start of large-scale produciton of new micro-algae, Dunaliella salina and the cyanobacteria. A rich source of b-carotène, D. salina is to-day the third most widely traded micro-alga.

With the general explosion of renewables energies in the year 2000, the production of biofuel from micro-algues has come to the forefront. Their high lipids content and their high productivity have attracted hundreds of miilions of €uros sinc2 2007 in companies developing 3rd generation biofuels.

Although according to a study that he undertook, the range of possible applications of these photosynthesizing organisms is very wide, but few analysts have focussed on their commercial potential. Only a dozen of micro-algae are to-day on the market: spirulines, chlorellas and algae of the species Crypthecodinium, Dunaliella, Haematococcus, and Ulkenia. The industry exploits them in the form of dried biomass (whole micro-algae or extracts), in segments of the market as diverse as human and animal nutrition, cosmetics, or research. Several tens of tons of dried biomass are produced annually in the world. (1). With a market of almost €600m, spiruline and the specias Crypthecodinium jointly represent three-quarters of commercial production. The principal end-uses are carotenoïds,  phycobiliproteins (pigments) and anti-oxydants. More than 50% of biomass production are used by them.  Total sales of finished products are now worth some €4bn. worldwide.

Valeurs Vertes has also just published an interview with Jérémy Pruvost, a member of the GEPEA laboaratory based in Nantes (Génie des Procédés, Environnement, Agroalimentaire, Energie, Mer), the only French laboratory to work on the industrial processes that incorporate micro-algae. "Everything that we do with terrestrial plants, we will do better with micro-algae, a whole new world ...."  according to Jean-Paul Cadoret, founder and director of the scientific council of Algenics.  Directeur du laboratoire Physiologie et biotechnologie des algues, Ifremer Nantes était intervenu aux entretiens sur les énergies de la mer dans le cadre de Science et Ethique à Brest (TV Web lors d'une des toutes premières présentation du Projet Shamash)... 

Sources : BioFutur, Valeurs Vertes, l'actualité Chimique, BioMarine, 3B Conseils

Original Article : Brigitte Bornemann; translated and edited by Christopher LONGMORE.