Seambiotic, a company developing marine microalgae for biofuel and nutraceuticals, announced that it has signed an agreement to form a joint venture in China.
The company signed a License Agreement and a Joint Venture Agreement with Yantai Hairong Electricity Technology Ltd. and Penglai Weiyuan Science & Trading Ltd., two companies associated with China Guodian Corporation.
China Guodian (www.cgdc.com.cn) is one of China’s largest power companies with more than 100 power stations.
The joint venture with Seambiotic will utilize Seambiotic’s technology for the cultivation of a number of types of microalgae for use in the animal and fish foodstock and nutraceutical industries.
The first commercial farm of 12 hectares is expected to cost $10 million. It will be situated in Penglai and utilize carbon dioxide from the Penglai power station to feed the algae. It is planned to become operational during 2010.
The joint venture agreement contemplates additional farms to be established based upon a pre-agreed timetable.
"The joint venture with Yantai Hairong and Penglai Weiyuan is a major development for Seambiotic," said Daniel Chinn, Seambiotic CEO. "Partnering with such significant companies validates our model of working with important power companies around the world, and we look forward to working with our Chinese partners in establishing the first farm and commercializing our product."
Seambiotic was founded in 2003 in cooperation with the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to grow and process marine microalgae for the nutraceutical and biofuel industries while acting as a carbon capture technology.
Seambiotic’s research efforts are performed at a pilot plant at IEC’s power station near Ashkelon, Israel, where various species of marine microalgae have been cultivated using the power station’s CO2 emissions released directly from their smokestacks; the microalgae are in turn sold into the nutraceutical market or used as feedstock for animal or fish and biofuel.
In July, Seambiotic entered into a research agreement with the NASA Glenn Research Center.
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