Newswise — LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Feb. 20, 2019 — Los Alamos National Laboratory and partners are inviting the algae industry and academia to contribute to research to find the best algae strains for biofuels and bioproducts and to reduce the cost of producing bioenergy from algae feedstocks.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Bioenergy Technologies Office) is sponsoring the project, called Development of Integrated Screening, Cultivar Optimization and Verification Research (DISCOVR), which is an interlaboratory consortium among Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.
“The key cost driver for algae biofuels is productivity, which is directly tied to which algae strain is chosen and how it’s cultivated,” said Taraka Dale, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “By collaborating with industry and academia, we aim to bring together the best of the best strains and cultivation strategies to rapidly boost productivity and reduce costs.”
DISCOVR has developed a standardized pipeline for evaluating promising strains to produce cost-effective bioenergy and partners with the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University (AzCATI) to evaluate strains and cultivation strategies outdoors. The goal of the Call for Collaboration is to solicit algae strains, tools and techniques from the algae community to further boost algae productivity. This call gives industry and academia an opportunity to partner with the four national laboratories in DISCOVR, as well as AzCATI.
Proposals submitted to the Call for Collaboration will be reviewed on a rolling basis. For more information, instructions and a proposal template, please email [email protected] and/or visit https://discovr.labworks.org/.
About Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.
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