NEWS

Dr. Peter Lammers, a project lead on the NM EPSCoR bioalgal energy component, and his team at New Mexico State University (NMSU) were recently awarded a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue research on algae-based fuel. The project, entitled "Realization of Algae Potential" or REAP, will last 2.5 years and will focus on improving the yields and stability of algal biomass and cultivation systems. Not only does the project span across NMSU disciplines including chemical engineering, environmental and wildlife sciences, and bio-security and food safety, it will also join several out-of-state institutions together. From the press release:

Lammers will coordinate efforts at partner institutions that include Los Alamos, Argonne and Pacific Northwest national laboratories; Washington State and Michigan State universities and four companies, Phycal, Algenol Biofuels, Pan-Pacific Technologies and UOP-Honeywell.

In New Mexico, algae strain improvement will be studied at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and cultivation simulation and validation will be conducted at NMSU. NMSU will also take the lead on integrating all of the unit operations at a single location. Both LANL and NMSU are partners with NM EPSCoR.
In addition to the DOE REAP grant, the NMSU bioalgal team will also receive $1.5 million over 5 years from the NM EPSCoR RII-4 project and $700,000 over 2 years from the DOE to support algal cultivation at the Fabian Garcia Science Center. Congratulations to Dr. Lammers and his team!