Publication date:	29 mei 2008
More information:	Dr.ir. J.G. (Jan) de Wilt E-mail: j.g.de.wilt@innonet.agro.nl Phone: +31 (0)70-3784774 Mobile: +31 (0)6-48131103 Expertise: agriculture and water

There are many ways to thwart innovation. At our office we have a list of 26 ‘idea killers’, varying from “we’ve already tried that once before” to “that is not my responsibility” or “we need more research first”. Since the algae congress on 27 May we can add: “great idea, let’s do it right now”. Exploiting algae as a source of energy has developed into a real hype, a bubble of hope and promise, which can easily burst apart, thus stifling rather than stimulating innovation in this field.

Despite the hefty admission price of € 450, almost 200 people turned up for the first-ever Dutch algae congress at De Meerpaal in Dronten. That is far more than the number of people working in the Dutch algae sector, which currently numbers less than 10 firms! Worldwide, the sector generates a turnover of just € 1 billion, comparable with the annual turnover of the Dutch flower bulb sector. So why all this interest? In a nutshell: algae can very efficiently convert waste flows such as CO₂, minerals and residual heating into useful products like pharmaceuticals, food, feed, bulk chemicals and biofuels. What’s more, they grow in freshwater or saltwater and therefore make no claims on scarce land for food production.

So expectations are high and the media are full of algae news. Only last week KLM announced plans to fuel the Fokker 50s for its Amsterdam-London service with algae oil by the year 2010. Two factories with an annual production of 300 tons of algae each are to be built for this purpose – which is actually just enough to keep one of their 14 Fokkers in the air for a month. So let’s keep both feet on the ground. Hey, that sounds like another great idea killer for our list. But in this case, it can help us to develop the true potential of algae (and what a potential!).

This potential currently lies mainly in high-grade applications, particularly in the sphere of food for people, animals and plants. Remarkably enough, a fairly broad consensus was achieved about this among the congress participants. This would give the Netherlands a great chance to take advantage of its watery nature, and even reinforce it in the future – which seems like a slightly odd conclusion to reach on dry land that has been reclaimed from the IJsselmeer. But times are constantly changing, I reflect while passing an endless row of wind turbines in the polder on my way home.

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