EUROPEAN BIODIESEL BOARD

The European Biodiesel Board also known as EBB, is a non-profit organisation established in January 1997. EBB aims to promote the use of biodiesel in the European Union, at the same time, grouping the major EU biodiesel producers. Located in Brussels, with Mr. Raffaello Garofalo as Secretary General, EBB has achieved a high degree of visibility and confidence vis-a-vis the EU institutions and non-governemental organisations alike through its networking, information gathering and co-ordination activities.

European Biodiesel Board – EBB Coordinator Country : BELGIUM http://www.ebb-eu.org Mr. Raffello Garofalo ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE

The Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Agrarie (Department of agricultural biotechnology) had its inception on 1 January, 2000. While therefore younger than the Faculty of Agriculture in the University of Florence, it includes research groups that are well established, with a long-standing and demonstrated research experience both in Italy and abroad. The Department has numerous highly specialised laboratories for chemical, physical and biological studies. It also has a laboratory to study the sensorial properties of foods and consumer preferences, and a laboratory of molecular plant pathology, in which host/parasite relationships are studied at molecular level. The Department also has a technological platform called Genexpress, to study genomics, post genomics and phenomics.

Università degli Studi di Firenze Country : ITALY http://www.unifi.it Prof. Mario Tredici ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

DIESTER INDUSTRIE (DI)

Created in 1993, DIESTER INDUSTRIE (DI) is specialised in the production and commercialisation of the Diester® biodiesel and its co-products. The company is controlled by SOPROL, a SOFIPROTEOL Holding specialised in the industrial transformation of oilseeds, and by FIDICOOP/FINEGOCE, holdings which include in their capital structure more than 600 seeds collecting organisation all around the French territory.
DI is active on the French market, but also on the European market through its subsidiary DIESTER INDUSTRIE INTERNATIONAL (DII) created in 2005. Finally DI is also active on other vegetable oil markets, in particular the vegetal based chemistry through its subsidiaries NOVANCE and OLEON.

Diester industrie International Country : FRANCE http://www.prolea.com Mr. Jean-François Rous ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY 

Wageningen University is a leading European university in the life sciences, with 80 chair groups, 205 professors, 5,600 employees and ~6,000 students. The Laboratory of Genetics, which resides under the direction of Plant Sciences (~1,400 employees), has presently 8 permanent scientific staff (of which 2 full professors), 6 support staff, 5 postdocs, 15 PhD students and several MSc and BSc students. The laboratory is involved in the basic teaching of genetics, from molecular to population genetics, evolutionary biology and molecular ecology. The research within the laboratory involves the genetic characterization of natural variation and understanding the causes and consequences of natural genetic variation using micro-organisms and plants.

Wageningen Universiteit Country : THE NETHERLANDS http://www.wur.nl Prof. Dr. Ir. René Wijffels ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

BEN GURION UNIVERSITY

The Landau Family Microalgal Biotechnology Laboratory (MBL) at the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) of Ben Gurion University (BGU) operates for more than 30 years and includes 5 senior researchers. The MBL represents one of the few research centres worldwide that is interfacing basic algal physiology with industrial applications. Our range of expertise spans a considerable accumulated know-how on (i) indoor and outdoor microalgal intensive and extensive growth; (ii) design of efficient photobioreactors; (iii) basic and stress algal physiology; (iv) overproduction, analysis and partial extraction of valuable secondary carotenoids and fatty acids; (v) basic algal molecular biology and biochemistry, as well as (vi) microalgal taxonomy and contamination management.

Country : ISRAEL http://www.bgu.ac.il Prof. Sammy Boussiba ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

UNVERSITY OF ALMERIA

The University of Almería (UAL) is a state-funded university created July 1993.  Currently 30 degrees are available at the UAL, counting with more than 800 tenured Faculty staff members and over 15000 students. The Chemical Engineering Department at the UAL started the research activity in microalgal biotechnology in 1987. The research activity in the last years spans several  bioprocess at different development steps: (i) industrial exploitation of algal biotechnology for fine chemicals production, (ii) Integrated system for biological abatement of flue gases from power plants by using microalgae, (iii) alori-chemical and enzymatic methods for algal oil recovery and processing, (iv) photobioreactor engineering, (v) biorefinery based production strategy (using every component of the biomass raw material to produce usable products).

Universidad de Almeria Country : SPAIN http://www.ual.es Prof. Emilio Molina Grima ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

The Roquette group, family enterprise is the world leader in polyols, pyrogen free raw materials, dry sugars, as well as one of the world’s major producers of starch and its derivatives.
The research activities of Roquette are located principally in Lestrem, in northern France. The proximity between labs and factory is a major asset for the development of both new techniques and innovative products.
Thanks to more than 250 researchers and technicians, Roquette’s Research center registers around 20 patents a year. Researches there are focused on biochemistry, microbiology, and analytical control fields as well as the new technology development and applications. Roquette, which signs more than 200 research contracts a year, cooperates closely with universities and labs worldwide.

Roquette Frères Country : FRANCE http://www.roquette.fr Dr. Frédéric Bouvier ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

IRISH SEAWEED CENTER

Irish Seaweed Center was established as one of the recommendations of the National Seaweed Forum Report as a virtual R&D centre in 2001. The ISC is a R&D unit within the Martin Ryan Institute of the National University of Ireland, Galway that is solely dedicated to applied phycology. It acts as an interface with industry and academia to pursue market-led opportunities reflecting international trends. The centre has a team of 7 contract and permanent researchers to undertake current research projects and develop new market-led opportunities. The ISC provides teaching and training and also hosts students from third level institutions, industry and exchange students from abroad. Over the last 4 years the ISC has hosted 13 students and provided over 13 seaweed courses to the industry, co-ops, Enterprise Boards and international specialists groups. Over the same period, 40 research projects have been undertaken of which 19 had industry involvement. A total of close to € 3 million has been generated through project funding, 17 papers have been published and 14 poster and/or presentations have been given at prestigious conferences in the past 5 years.

Irish Seaweed Centre Country : IRELAND http://www.irishseaweed.com Dr. Anna Soler-Vila ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

GHENT UNIVERSITY

Ghent University, abbreviated to Ugent, is one of the major universities in the Dutch-speaking region. Over 130 faculty departments, divided over 11 faculties, offer high-quality courses in every one of their scientific disciplines, each inspired by innovative research. Ugent yearly attracts over 30,000 students, with a foreign student population of over 2,200 EU and non-EU citizens. With a view to cooperation in research and community service, numerous research groups, centers and institutes have been founded over the years.
Today, after decades of uninterrupted growth, Ugent is one of the leading institutions of higher education and research in the Low Countries. Ugent is an open, committed and pluralistic university with a broad international perspective.

Gent Universiteit Country : BELGIUM http://ugent.be Prof. Patrick Sorgeloos ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

NECTON - ALGAFUEL

Necton´s Mission is to exploit innovative products resulting from scientific knowledge in Marine Technologies. Necton is specialized in the production and processing of microalgae for the extraction of valuable compounds. The available scientific, technological and market knowledge involves applications in several sectors, including: Aquaculture, Feed, Agrofood, Health Food, Cosmetic and recently Biofuels.
There is a wide expertise in carotenóides (beta-carotene, astaxanthin,…), poli-unsaturated fatty acids. The company has a unique large-scale marine and freshwater microalgae production facility. Several technology platform production range, from small scale (50 liters plastic bags) to 1.000 liter PBRs. Necton’s proprietary technology with three types of PBRs makes possible to cultivate freshwater, sea salinity and hyper saline microalgae of many genera. PBR technologies are used / adapted according with the production objectives. Necton is in the market with the product PhytoBloom green formula since 2000, consisting in a Nannochloropsis concentrate, was initially developed for the Green-Water applications and now is used, with success, in hatcheries, aquariums and R&D institutions.

Necton – Algafuel Country : PORTUGAL http://www.algafuel.pt Mr. Vítor Verdelho Vieira ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

IMPERIAL COLLEGE of LONDON

The Imperial College BioEnergy Group’s (operating within the Imperial College Centre for Environmental Policy, ICEPT/CEP) research focus is on techno-economic, environmental and policy issues related to biomass energy systems for the heat, electricity and transport sectors. Work is carried out for a range of research councils, government and international organisations, non-government organisations and industry. Group members have published extensively in the area, and participate in national and international expert committees. The Group hosts postgraduate students and its members teach on postgraduate courses at Imperial College and at other universities. The Group interacts closely with other members of the Centre for Environmental Policy, where it is located, and with other research groups in the College, such as the Centre for Process Systems Engineering.

Imperial College London Country : UNITED KINGDOM http://www3.imperial.ac.uk Ms. Calliope Panoutsou ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

THE ACADEMY of SCIENCE of the CZECH REPUBLIC - INSTITUTE OF MICROBIOLOGY, ASCRe

The Institute of Microbiology in Prague was founded in 1962 as a part of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The institute is divided into 6 departments. The Laboratory of Cell Cycles of Algae, which members will take part in the project, is a part of Department of Autotrophic Microorganisms detached in town Třeboň in South Bohemia. The Laboratory is involved both in basic and applied research. The basic research is concerned on the regulation of cell cycles in algae encompasses the study of regulatory molecular mechanisms at the cell-cycle key regulatory points and study of the role of various environmental factors on regulatory proteins during the cell cycle. Recently the study of effect of selenium and lanthanoids on algae as well as their intracellular metabolism together with research of controlled synthesis of starch and lipids make a bridge to the applied research which was involved in the optimization of large-scale production of microalgal biomass in solar bioreactors as well as in heterotrophic fermentors with aim to produce a sufficient amount well defined products for checking out in target organisms by colaborating corporations and finally processed.

The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic – Institute of Microbiology Country : CZECH REPUBLIC http://www.biomed.cas.cz/mbu/en Dr. Vilem Zachleder ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

STUDIO MARTINELLI