Dr. José Olivares together with leading researchers in the field of microalgae at the URJC, visited AlgaEnergy’s offices in Madrid.

Dr. José Olivares together with leading researchers in the field of microalgae at the URJC, visited AlgaEnergy’s offices in Madrid. 

Dr. José Olivares, who has led the world-renowned Division of Bioscience at Los Alamos National Laboratory (U.S.) and is the Editor-in-chief of the scientific magazine Algal Research, together with leading researchers in the field of microalgae at the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), visited AlgaEnergy’s offices in Madrid.On the part of URJC, the people attended the meeting were the professors Fernando Bautista, Rosalía Rodríguez, Victoria Morales and Gemma Vicente, and the PhD student Alejandra Sánchez-Bayo. All of them are researchers involved in the Departments of Chemical, Energetic and Environmental Technologies, Mechanics and Analytical Chemistry.

The fruitful meeting served to define the guidelines for future collaborations in order to obtain biofuels based on microalgae. The aim is to establish research projects such as the one named "Production of bio-oil and hydrogen from microalgae through hydrothermal liquefaction processes and steam reforming in membrane reactors", led by the URJC professors José Antonio Calles and Alicia Carrero. AlgaEnergy, with an extensive experience in the production and commercialization of microalgae biomass, and being an international reference in this field, has already expressed its support to these kinds of projects. The abovementioned project in particular intends to obtain research grants from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain, within the frame of the Program “Retos Investigación” ("Research Challenges").

During the meeting, it was agreed to carry out an Industrial Doctorate, framed with the announcement of the Community of Madrid to support the public-private partnerships to carry out Industrial Doctorates. In this regard, AlgaEnergy intends to hire a PhD student that will be able to complete his training at the company.

This meeting is just another example of AlgaEnergy’s aim to continue strengthening the collaboration established with the universities in general, and with this University in particular, in order to promote agreements striving towards the R&D excellence. This agreement also shows AlgaEnergy’s culture and commitment to the academic world, from which the company originates.