NASA Signs Second Algae Deal: Will the Space Agency Seek Green in Green?

Seambiotic, a U.S.-Israel outfit that wants to grow algae for fuel and food, has inked a research alliance with the NASA Glenn Research Center. Under the deal, NASA will provide computational modeling and other expertise to help Seambiotic, ideally, figure out a way to grow large quantities of algae and low prices.

Seambiotic grows algae in open raceway ponds (think of a horse racing track) and moves around the algae with a paddlewheel. The algae in a prototype plant in Israel are fed by C02 flue-gas from a nearby IEC power plant. The company uses genetic optimization and has teamed up with Inventure Chemical to turn the algae into fuel.

Open ponds are cheaper than bioreactors, but they also aren't as cheap as one might think: There is more to it than digging a hole, filling it with pond water and waiting. Plus, it is more difficult to control invasive species from coming into open ponds, so growing genetically optimized algae like Seambiotic is trying to do isn't easy. A bunch of companies are trying to raise algae in open ponds. It is not economical for fuel yet. Growing nutraceutical algae is easier: nutraceutical algae can sell for thousands of dollars a ton.

The interesting part, however, is that this marks NASA's second algae deal. The agency also allows PetroAlgae to use a lab originally designed for growing vegetables in harsh environments to optimize its algae. The lab was created in the '70s in preparation of manned Mars flights. NASA realized that astronauts would need to grow their own food. The effort to grow extraterrestrial lettuce, however, was cancelled with the manned Mars plans. (Not, however, before the controversial plan to send James Brolin and O.J. Simpson into space so amply documented in Capricorn One.)

Will NASA cut more deals? Probably. The agency has a wealth of scientific talent and need money. Besides, algae, NASA could contribute to material science, batteries and transportation. The national labs have already paved the way for tech transfer too. Back in the '90s, it was exceedingly difficult to license technology from national labs. Intel spent considerable time and money to get the labs to cooperate on a type of lithography called EUV.

Now, it's much easier. Startups like GreenVolts and LiveFuel are based around technology from national labs – include lithium miner Simbol Mining in that group too. Steve Chu, who ran Lawrence Berkeley Lab before becoming the Secretary of Energy, helped prompt the change at the labs.