Reviewer Comments - EERE

2011 Algae Platform Review – Reviewer Comments
Reviewer Comments are direct transcripts of commentary and material provided by the Platform’s
Review Panel. They have not been edited or altered by the Biomass Program.
The project has considered applications of the expected outputs
Reviewer Comments
Reviewer: 1 Criteria Score: 4
This could be a relevant project. More progress and a sharpening of the project approaches would help
this.
Reviewer: 2 Criteria Score: 7
The project is important to recycling and efficiency of energy extraction from algal biofuels.
Reviewer: 3 Criteria Score: 7
Commercial success of algal biofuels will require co-products of sufficient value and market size --AD
for biopower has significant potential, but the details are poorly understood
Reviewer: 4 Criteria Score: 6
See Overall Impressions text.
Reviewer: 5 Criteria Score: 3
The project goals are certainly relevant to platform goals, but the approach unnecessarily limits the
ultimate relevance of any results.
Reviewer: 6 Criteria Score: 5
The project proposed activities at each stage (such as enzymatic hydrolysis) without driving hypothesis
anywhere or justification for a pathway that fits into the knowledge basis of the literature and reports by
Benneman et al and Lundquist et al.
Reviewer: 7 Criteria Score: 6
The relevance is high because there is no scale limit on the concept. Detailed economic goals are needed.
Presenter Response
These comments are addressed by the discussion above under Project Approach. The “driving
hypothesis” of the project is the validation of specific assumptions being made in the technoeconomic
modeling, which are described above. The current knowledge base in the literature is a good start, but
overall the amount of research reported on anaerobic digestion of algal residues is miniscule compared to
the work done on other aspects of the algal biofuels process.
4. Critical Success Factors
The project has identified critical factors, (including technical, business, market, regulatory, and legal
factors) that impact the potential technical and commercial success of the project
The project has presented adequate plans to recognize, address, and overcome these factors
The project has the opportunity to advance the state of technology and impact the viability of commercial
algal biomass feedstock supply and conversion, through one or more of the following:
i. Cross-Cutting Analysis (ex. economic analysis, sustainability analysis, resource assessments, risk
assessments)
ii. Feedstock Supply R&D (ex. biology, cultivation, resource use, biomass characteristics,
harvesting/dewatering)
iii. Downstream Refining R&D (ex. extraction, conversion, fuel, products, fuel/product infrastructure and
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