In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which required the United States to increase biofuel use.
Within EERE, the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) created a Multi-Year Program Plan describing many specific challenges to overcome and goals to complete in order to increase the percentage of fuel in the United States coming from biological sources.
Through their work, these researchers have proven that the carbon dioxide within flue gas from coal-fired power plants can be captured using algae, which can subsequently harvested and utilized, e.g. as a feedstock for the production of drop-in hydrocarbon fuels.
[11] Also the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering of the University of Georgia is exploring microalgal biomass production using industrial wastewater.
The NAA gives its members a forum to efficiently evaluate various algae technologies for potential early stage company opportunities.