Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
Philip T. Pienkos
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
The Algae Testbed Public Private Partnership (ATP3), a multi-institutional effort funded by the US Department of Energy
has established a network of operating testbeds that brings together world-class scientists, engineers and business
executives whose goal it is to increase stakeholder access to high quality facilities by making available an unparalleled array
of outdoor cultivation, downstream equipment, and laboratory facilities. ATP3 utilizes the same powerful combination of
facilities, technical expertise to support TEA, LCA and resource modeling and analysis activities, helping to close critical
knowledge gaps and inform robust analyses of the state of technology for algal biofuels. ATP3 includes testbed facilities at
ASU’s Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI), and augmented by university and commercial facilities
in Hawaii (Cellana), California (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), Georgia (Georgia Institute of Technology), and Florida (Florida
Algae). ATP3 uses its facilities to perform coordinated long term cultivation trials producing robust, meaningful datasets from
this regional network determining the effects of seasonal and geographic variations on algal cultivation productivity. This
presentation will provide a summary of the ATP3 capabilities as a user facility as well as outreach efforts to connect both local
and international customers with resources. It will also provide a summary of the experimental framework termed “Unified
Field Studies” (UFS), with year-long cultivation experiments using two different algal strains across five distinct geographic
regions using standardized mini-raceway ponds.
Philip T. Pienkos earned his BS in Honors Biology at the University of Illinois and his Ph.D, in Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin. He has nearly 30 years of
biotechnology experience in the pharmaceutical, chemical and energy sectors. He is a co-founder of two companies: Celgene, an established biotech/pharma company, and
Molecular Logix, a case study for technology-rich/funding-poor biotech startup. He joined NREL in 2007 as a section supervisor and now holds the title of Principal Group
Manager for the Bioprocess R&D Group in the National Bioenergy Center. His group is involved in various aspects of strain development, process integration, compositional
analysis, catalytic upgrading, and molecular modeling for advanced biofuels based on a wide variety of feedstocks including lignocellulosic biomass, algal biomass and
methane. In addition to his line management responsibilities, he is also the Algal Biofuels Platform Lead for the National Bioenergy Center at NREL and serves as lead for
a number of projects that are relevant to this proposal, including the BETO funded Lipid Catalysis Project and the ARPA-E funded Biological Gas to Liquid Project (part of
the REMOTE Program). He is part of a team of algae experts from NREL and Sandia National Laboratories who worked with the Department of Energy to organize National
Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap Workshop held in December, 2008 and was a contributor to the National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap document, published in
May, 2010. Philip is a founding member of the Algae Biomass Organization and has served as a member of the board of directors for that organization from 2008 to 2013.
He is currently on the board of directors of the Algae Foundation. He was named in Biofuels Digest’s list of the top 100 people in biofuels for four years running.