The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), in collaboration with the Algae Foundation and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, announced a new AlgaePrize competition for high school through graduate students studying at a US-based high school, college, community college, university, and/or graduate school. Student teams will compete for a total of $130,000 in prize awards.

Fast-growing and able to store energy from sunlight, algae can be transformed into a variety of products, such as fuel, food, fertilizer, industrial compounds, and animal feed. In the emerging bioeconomy, algae, a renewable, abundant, and flexible source of energy could replace fossil fuels.

During the competition, teams will participate in a nearly 18-month process of pursuing innovative ideas for the development, design, and invention of technologies within the commercial algae value chain, exploring novel solutions to algae production, processing, and new product development.

Teams should focus their project on one of the following areas of interest:

• Production. Cultivar enhancement; Aquaculture engineering; Husbandry and productivity

• Downstream Processing. Harvesting, dewatering, and processing; Development of biorefinery applications

• Identification of Novel Products or Tools. New product development; Remote sensing and modeling; Ecological/environmental services

The competition opened 13 January 2022, and teams of two or more students currently enrolled in a US-based education program must register by 2 March 2022. The grand champion competition winner will receive a $20,000 cash prize.