NASA's Algae Bioreactor Licensed to Algae Systems, LLC

Thursday, November 19 2009

Earlier this year, NASA introduced an algae photo-bioreactor that grows algae in municipal wastewater to produce biofuel and a variety of other products. The NASA bioreactor is an Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA), which won't compete with agriculture for land, fertilizer, or freshwater.

NASA's Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, CA) licensed the patent-pending algae photo-bioreactor to Algae Systems, LLC (Carson City, NV) which plans to develop and pilot the technology in Tampa Bay, FL. Algae Systems is a new company dedicated to commercializing the method. The company plans to refine and integrate the NASA technology into biorefineries to produce renewable energy products, including diesel and jet fuel.

The OMEGA system consists of large plastic bags with inserts of forward-osmosis membranes that grow freshwater algae in processed wastewater by photosynthesis. Using the sun's energy, the algae absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nutrients from the wastewater to produce biomass and oxygen. As the algae grow, the nutrients are contained in the enclosures, while the cleansed freshwater is released into the surrounding ocean through the forward-osmosis membranes.