lemnaceae: feed, fuel, fertilizer

Lemnaceae,Feed, Fuel, and

Fertilizer

Tamra FakhoorianUS Algae Supply, Inc.Sedalia, Kentucky USA

tamraf.naa@att.net

April 28, 2011 IBIO Dalian, China

The future will be green, or not at all. This truth lies at the heart of

humankind's most pressing challenge: to learn to live in harmony with the Earth on a genuinely sustainable basis." Sir Jonathon Porritt

As the most rapidly growing flowering plant in the world that has the potential to couple wastewater remediation to biomass production globally, duckweed will play an indispensable role in solving some of the most urgent problems in our society in the coming decades.

We will discuss…

Brief primer on duckweed’s attributes

Current micro/macro applications of duckweed production and the people behind them.

Spirodela polyrrhiza and Wolffia globosa

Photo:EricGuintther

Duckweed Factoids: Simplest and smallest vascular plant on earth 35-44% protein, similar to soybean One of fastest growing, doubling biomass

every 30 hrs, 40 metric tons DW per year (unimproved strains)

Can produce 5-6x amount of starch of corn per year, making it a strong candidate for ethanol

Easily digested and assimilated by animals Can absorb 86% of nitrogen, 65% of

phosphates in tertiary wastewater systems in ten days.

Paul Skillicorn,Austin, TX

Current project- Lima, Peru, development of city park with circular duckweed ponds with paths as in a nature garden. Redundant system features automated harvesting, residential wastewater remediation, aquatic worm digestion of solids, fertigation of local farmlands, solar drying of duckweed for pelletized animal feedstock. Water used 4x before allowed to evaporate/dissipate. Is showing a profitable ROI.

Courtesy Duckweed Aquaculture- P. Skillicorn, W. Spira, W. Journey

Dr. Lewis Landesman,Vance Haugen

IPED, Guyana“Get growing, keep going”

Dr. Leslie Chin,Director of integrated farming methods

NASA-Dr. Jonathan Trent’s OMEGA System- offshore membrane enclosures for growing algae … and duckweed?

Isabelle Cossart-New Orleans, LA

First International Duckweed Conference

Chengdu Institute of Biology (CIB),

the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China; October 5th - 7th, 2011

Contact: Mr. Zhao Hai (赵海 ) Tel: +86-28-85229857, Mobile: +86-13808073339, Email: zhaohai@cib.ac.cn

"The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired in value." Theodore Roosevelt

Thank you!