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Houston Chronicle @HoustonChron Houston Chronicle | Sunday, July 1, 2018 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com Section B HH

BUSINESS

Big investmentin American LNG

Qatar Petroleum, the world’s biggestseller of liquefied natural gas, is

putting $20 billion in U.S. PAGE B3

FUELFIX

Springwoods Villageoffice buildingNew CityPlace designed

to attract smaller tenants nearExxon Mobil campus. PAGE B4

PRIME PROPERTY

Website can saveon electric bills

Engineer says his programmingskills help consumers cut throughpromotional gimmicks. PAGE B5

VOICES

The Texas A&M MaritimeAcademy wants Congress toallocate $300 million for a train-ing vessel large enough to ac-commodate all of its students,an upgrade that would put theGalveston campus on par withthe nation’s six other federallysupported schools for aspiringmariners.

Officials say the new ship isurgently needed to give cadetsthe required six months at seato become certified as a thirdmate or third engineer.

The school’s current trainingvessel, the 224-foot GeneralRudder, holds just 50 students.But the academy needed roomfor 275 cadets this summer.That discrepancy caused it toturn away 50 applicants for lackof space last year.

Leadership of the maritimeacademy, part of Texas A&MUniversity’s Galveston campus,worries that could exacerbate anational shortage of trainedseafarers.

“Our ability to send andreceive goods over the water isa critical national need that wehave,” said Col. Mike Fossum,chief operating officer ofTAMUG and a retired astro-naut. “So we need a workforceand the ships, the capability, tomeet that need.”

For the past 12 years, A&M-Galveston has dispersed its SeaAggies to other academies toget the required oceangoingexperience on their ships. Thatput them not only in unfamiliarsurroundings, but also at adisadvantage for leadershiproles.

EDUCATION

A&MGalvestonpursuesbigger shipto teach itsmarinersBy Andrea Leinfelder

Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle

Col. Mike Fossum of TexasA&M University at Galvestonis working on procuring a newship for the university.

A&M continues on B6

IMPERIAL — Inside a high-tech lab in a modular buildingin the West Texas desert here,a young scientist peeredthrough a microscope at a slideof live and multiplying algae.She was on the prowl for

“grazers,” a sort of cellular-level locustthat could wreak havoc on the multi-million-dollar crop proliferating in thickgreen ponds outside.

It’s the equivalent of acotton farmer walkingrows in search of dis-ease-carrying bolls,explained RebeccaWhite, the 38-year-oldmicrobiologist who runsone of the world’s fewcommercially viablealgae farms.

The harvest? For now,kilos upon kilos of bio-mass that is a plant-based source of omega-3fatty acids, which inrecent years have be-come all the rage forlowering cholesterol,promoting healthierskin and promising

other health benefits. Common practicehas been to consume them via a hunk ofsalmon or supplements derived fromfish or krill. But since fish and krill actu-ally get their omega-3 from algae, Whiteand her team have figured out how tocut out the “middle fish” and capitalizeon cultivating the source.

In a sign of how commonplace thepractice has become, White, whose fami-ly has for generations raised cotton andcattle in the Texas Panhandle, says hergrandfather has begrudgingly acknowl-

edged that domesticatingaquatic microorganismscounts as real farming.

The farm in Imperialis owned by Houston-based Qualitas Health,which partnered withH-E-B for the alGeepaline of supplements andis now expanding intothe $33 billion omega-3market with iWi. Thelatter line rolled out atAmazon.com, the Vita-min Shoppe and SproutsFarmers Market in June.

“But that is just thevery beginning, that isjust one of our verticals,”

AGRICULTURE

Texas algae farm growsa food for the future

Billy Calzada photos / San Antonio Express-News

Above: Qualitas Health is cultivating and harvesting algae in ponds in the West Texas desert to extract its omega-3 fattyacids for human health benefits. Below: Algae expert Rebecca White, a vice president at Qualitas, looks over the crop.

By Lynn Brezosky Its healthy cropcan help lower

cholesterol, saveresources andreinvent ‘how

we feed people’

Algae continues on B9

HH Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, July 1, 2018 | B9

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BUSINESS

said the Spanish entrepre-neur Miguel Calatayud,who is Qualitas’ CEO.“What we are really excit-ed about is the food thing,the protein. Our proteinhas all the essential aminoacids, so it’s better thanbeef. It is the best veganprotein we’ve ever seen.”

Calatayud has been inthe food business for 20years and at one pointgrew more than 700 mil-lion pounds of vegetablesat sites around the world.Smoothie fans in SouthTexas may know the lineof frozen “Blendables” hedeveloped for H-E-B. He’sconvinced high-proteinsnacks derived from algaewill be his next big thing.

It will be a challenge.The United Nations in 1974called algae “the mostideal food for mankind,”and the Food and Agricul-ture Organization declaredit “the best food for tomor-row.” But so far not evenNASA’s been able to getpeople to want to eat it. Atleast, not the averageAmerican.

With more people es-chewing certain foods anda world population expect-ed to approach 10 billionby 2050, however, a newgeneration of scientistssays the mainstreaming ofalgae is inevitable.

“Most people’s experi-ences with algae are acontamination event ofsome sort,” White said.“Your pool, the dog bowl,the Great Lakes, yourswimming hole — that’s allnegative. But algae hasbeen doing so many posi-tive things for so manyyears that they don’t talkabout in a way that getspeople’s attention. ... Ourgoal is to make peoplethink about algae as food.”

Researchers have beenstudying algae’s potentialfor decades, of late thanksto billions of dollars inpublic and private in-vestment into turning itshigh-lipid concentrationsinto a renewable energysource.

White, who earned herdoctorate at Texas A&MUniversity, started out inthat realm, working in asouthern New Mexicoalgae farm owned by Sap-phire Energy. Sapphire’sefforts flopped, as havesimilar biofuel foraysaround the world.

“It was kind of a fool’serrand,” said Robert Hen-rickson, CEO of SmartMicrofarms and founderof California-basedEarthrise, which togetherwith its Japanese partner’sfarm in China is theworld’s leading producerof spirulina algae usedlargely as a blue-tonedfood coloring.

“They couldn’t even getclose on the cost,” Hen-rickson said. “It wouldhave to be to be compet-itive with fossils or solar.So a lot of those compa-nies either failed or triedto pivot to what is already

a great business for algae,which is high-value prod-ucts like food, nutraceut-icals, proteins.”

Green Stream Farmsbought out Sapphire’sfarm in Columbus, N.M.,and is now partneringwith Qualitas as the mainproduction hub for iWi(pronounced ee-wee). TheImperial facility is a for-mer shrimp farm with acouple of working oilpump jacks.

Its arid climate andaccess to a brackish wateraquifer make the other-wise barren land ideal foralgae farming.

The research takes placein Imperial, and the algaefor the H-E-B line is pro-duced there to maintain its“Go Texan” label.

The recipe is simple:Sun, salty water, seedbio-prospected from theocean and fertilizer. Pad-dles churn the water sothere’s no algae at thebottom being consistentlystarved of sunlight.

Unlike terrestrial cropsthat generally produce oneplant per seed, the water-based algae has volumetricscaling. You grow some ina small amount of wateruntil it reaches a certaindensity, then put it intosuccessively largeramounts of water andcontinue building up thatway. There’s a new cropevery day, and summergrowth is so fast eachpond is typically harvestedthree times a week.

A strain that starts in abeaker can eventuallyproduce between 10,000and 15,000 kilos of bio-

mass per acre a year.White monitors ponds

for color, favoring a brightkelly to forest green. Shegives newcomers paintswatches for reference. Amuddy, brownish greenmeans something isn’toptimal. The effect of highair temperature can beplayed with by deepeningponds or speeding waterflow to increase the cool-ing effect of evaporation.But if a strain can’t handlethe region’s intense sun-light, that farm is donewith that strain.

Rain would dilute allthe hard work, henceaquaculture in the desert.

“We’re the only type offarmer that doesn’t likerain,” White said.

Qualitas is growing agenus of algae called nan-nochloropsis, targetingeach of omega-3’s twoessential long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids.The better known is DHA(docosahexaenoic acid),said to benefit brain struc-ture and function andfound in infant formula,baby food and prenatalvitamins. The other isEPA (eicosapentaenoicacid), touted as a powerfulanti-inflammatory that isgood for cardiac health,joint health, mood and alot of other things.

“Early in life you needmore DHA than EPA, andthen later you need moreDHA than EPA, but forthe in-between, the major-ity you need more EPAthan DHA,” White ex-plained. “There’s one typeof algae that makes DHAand there’s one type of

algae that makes EPA. Sowherein with fish or krillyou get what you get,because we’re makingthem separately we canblend them together how-ever we want.”

There are other market-ing points. Algae-sourcedomegas are available with-out tapping already over-fished marine ecosystems.People with shellfish al-lergies or dietary restric-tions on animal productshave a new way to get thevital nutrient.

There’s also relatedeconomic development inImperial, as the farmscales up to a planned 150to 200 acres of ponds fromits current 50 acres. Twonew food trucks, onestarted by a Qualitascleaning lady, have sprout-ed up near the propertybecause there wasn’t any-where nearby for Qualitasstaff and visitors to buylunch.

Kimberly Kawa, seniornutritionist and retailreporting analysts forSPINS, a Chicago-basedconsumer insight andconsulting firm focusingon natural, organic andspecialty products, saidbrands featuring algae oilsupplements report dou-ble- and triple-digitgrowth.

She called iWi “anemerging brand” in thefield.

“Algae can tout plant-based, vegan and omega-3marketing, as well as beinga sustainable ingredient,”

she said in an email. “As aprotein source, it may gainmore appeal as consumerscontinue to explore thenon-animal-derived pro-tein landscape.”

Her research showedalgae popping up all overgrocery stores — saladdressings and plant-basedcreams and creamers inthe refrigerator sectionand as ingredient boostsfor shelf-stable baby food,chocolate candy and in-stant coffee.

Marketers are nowpushing spirulina as aprotein source for pow-ders as well as in juicesand wellness bars, shesaid. But while strong,spirulina’s growth rate hasbeen declining, while algaeproducts highlightingomega-3 or DHA aregrowing.

The close-knit globalalgae world is rooting forQualitas’ success.

“There’s very few peo-ple in the U.S. that canraise their hands and saythey’ve grown acres ofalgae,” said John McGo-wen, director of operationsat Arizona State Universi-ty’s Center for Algae Tech-nology and Innovation.The center has conductedDepartment of Energy-funded research into algalbiofuels as well as studiesof how algae can be usedto draw the last bits ofnitrogen and phosphorousout of treated wastewater.

“They’ve got a reallynice long history of justkind of slogging it out over

the last few years, of driv-ing the production costsdown, getting to scale andgenerating products thatare attractive in the mar-ketplace within the U.S.,”he said. “What they’redoing isn’t novel per se,but they’ve done their duediligence and done thehard work of creating analgae farming mindset.”

“You can find a lot moreof these sorts of products,algae-based nutraceuticalsand different food prod-ucts in Europe and inparticular the Far East,but it’s starting to breakthrough here,” he added.“And with the iWi brandin particular, they’ve gotsome good slick marketingcoming out.”

For algae scientists likeWhite, it’s part of a questto do something big.

“I would say that I’mvery much new-generationalgae,” she said. “There’sdefinitely a difference invision about how to exe-cute getting algae intopeople’s everyday livesbetween people who aremy age and the peoplewho have been doing it for30 years.”

“Algae is the story insome aspects but it’s notthe headline,” she said.“This is about reinventinghow we feed people, it’sabout extending resources.... But I also understandthat that’s not for every-one. You can’t just assumethat people are going towant it. It’s got to tastegood.”

lbrezosky@express-news.nettwitter.com/lbrezosky

Algae called ‘the best food for tomorrow’Algae from page B1

Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News

Ryan Johnson, a Qualitas Health engineer, checks algae samples. Algae can be used in salad dressings,plant-based creams and creamers and as boosts for baby food, chocolate candy and instant coffee.

All about algae• Provides 50 percent of the world’s oxygen.• Per-acre yield of essential amino acid production isseven times higher than soy, 300 times higher than peas.• One in 10 millennials describe themselves as vegan,favoring plant-based over animal proteins.• The international supplement market is valued at about$200 million, with omega-3 supplements worth about$33 billion.• In 2015, 1 acre of algae pond could produce between10,000 and 15,000 kilos of algae biomass in a year.

SOURCE: EXPRESS-NEWS RESEARCH