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.
Reviewer: 3 Criteria Score: 7
The project is progressing as indicated in the project management plan. Field sampling and laboratory
experimentation will continue.
Reviewer: 4 Criteria Score: 7
Water chemistry at some sites has been characterized. Some algae samples, presumably from geothermal
sites, have been characterized in lab for growth and lipid content. Amendments to geothermal waters have
been developed for algae media. A needed safety plan is in place --good.
Reviewer: 5 Criteria Score: 3
Progress is limited because the project started in September 2010.
Reviewer: 6 Criteria Score: 1
Only a few microalgae reactor cultures and developed the Nile Red assay.
Reviewer: 7 Criteria Score: 3
Technical progress is hindered by lack of conceptual temperature control ssytems supported by
engineeering calculations on heat and water balance in potential algae production systems.
Presenter Response
We agree that temperature control can be developed more as the program progresses and the scale of
water production and processing becomes known at sites. However, the general approach is such that the
private sector or other RnD activities will take this and other aspects on once it can be shown that biomass
can be reliably produced at desirable rates. It should also be noted that some or much of the nutrients can
be gained from the geothermal waters themselves (several sources have phosphate concentrations in
excess of 10 uM and nitrate and ammonium concentrations on the order of 500 to 3,000 uM) and this key
aspect of development relies on gaining better and up to date water chemistry information. Moreover,
much of the prior works in the field targeted developing strains in only a few types of reproducible
defined media. The RnD undertaken here is site-directed work and aims to work on only a few of the
waters and make growth media specific for the sites. The geochemical interactions of the water with
nutrient additions is showing that seemingly simple nutrient additions or water modifications are not
without issues that should be addressed.
Work on bioreactors or open cultures in the lab and in greenhouses provide a means to gain results
without having to expend large amount of the resources in testing strains and consortia in the field (which
is much much more expensive). The scaling approach is one that has its challenges. Yet, the approach of
developing consortia and or strains in the site-specific water is more likely to succeed when compared to
prior works that tried to gain isolates on defined media not tailored to sites or the approach that was
suggested of just building a pond and seeing what grows.
3. Project Relevance
The project both identifies with and contributes to meeting the platform goals and objectives of the
Biomass Program Multi-Year Program Plan
The project has considered applications of the expected outputs
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