The US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), in partnership with the Algae Foundation and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is announcing the launch of the 2023-2025 AlgaePrize Competition, which challenges students to become the next generation of bioeconomy professionals by expanding novel solutions supporting gigaton-scale algae commercialization.
This is the second iteration of the AlgaePrize competition, which was launched in January 2022 with 307 individual competitors from 64 student teams.
The 2023 – 2025 AlgaePrize is now part of DOE’s American-Made Challenges, a series of unique prize competitions designed to incentivize and reenergize American innovation in the energy marketplace.
AlgaePrize competition teams can include high schoolers, and undergraduate or graduate students advancing algal commercial enhancement, ecological services, education, training, and workforce development.
Over the next two years, student competitors will:
- Gain experience with innovative algal commercialization technologies;
- 开发生产的实际解决方案biofuels, foods, feeds, ecological services, and industrial compounds (e.g., biopolymers);
- Develop collaborative and leadership skills by working on multidisciplinary student teams;
- Engage and network with industry professionals, national lab researchers, and academics to forge relationships and connections that aid students’ transition to the algal-based bioeconomy via employment or entrepreneurial endeavors upon graduation;
- Compete to earn prize money, a trophy, and national recognition.
Competition categories
Student teams should focus their projects on one of the following three competition categories, which are applicable to both microalgae and macroalgae:
- ProductionCultivar Enhancement;
- Aquaculture Engineering;
- Husbandry and Productivity;
- Downstream ProcessingHarvesting, Dewatering, and Preprocessing;
- Development of Biorefinery Applications;
- Novel Products, Analytical Tools, or Ecosystem ServicesNew Product Development;
- Remote Sensing and Modeling;
- Ecosystem Services.
Student teamregistrations open on September 29, 2023, and teams can begin work, and registration closes on November 1, 2023.
