About Rainforest Algae – Rainforest Algae

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About Us

Our Mission

To provide high quality microalgae solutions at a global scale, creating value that supports people, respects nature and drives positive change.

Our Vision

To harness the full potential of microalgae to create natural solutions that improve daily life, support diverse industries, and contribute to a cleaner and more balanced world.

Our Timeline

Rainforest Algae Corp began as a research initiative under Summit View Development Corp, originally incorporated in 2001. What started as early collaboration in algae research has grown into a dedicated company focused on algae-based innovations.

2012 Initial algae research began under Summit View Development Corp, in collaboration with an algae cultivation company.
2013 Stan Pankratz, founder of Summit View, commenced PhD research studies on algae for CO₂ mitigation and biomass use in oil-sands operations.
2019 PhD completed; applied algae research initiated under Summit View to develop advanced photobioreactor systems.
2021 Submitted two patent applications related to gas mass transfer and nanobubble generation
2022 Research commences in collaboration with major energy company to cultivate algae in SAGD process water for GHG mitigation and water remediation.

2023 Research and commercialization activities officially transferred to the newly established Rainforest Algae Corp.
2023 Construction and commissioning of 420L and 1m3 L flowthrough PBR algae cultivation system. System testing under outdoor ambient conditions.
2023 Launch commercial production of 10L PBR with automated data access, monitoring, control and remote access.
2023 Relaunch of www.RainforestCookie.co and distribution of spirulina as food ingredient.
2024 Projected construction and commissioning of skid-mounted 10m3 flowthrough PBR system.
2025 Projected construction and commissioning of skid mounted 28m3 flowthrough PBR system.

Story of Rainforest Algae

Dr. Stan Pankratz joined as co-founder of Summit View Development Crop in 2010 to assist companies with accessing benefits found within the Government of Canada’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program.

It was his assistance to another algae company that had developed an advanced cultivation system, that led him on a personal journey focused on algae’s potential to address the Province of Alberta and Canada’s climate change challenge.

Algae is our planet’s fastest growing plant and has CO₂ as it’s key nutrient requirement. His PhD studies culminated in a report to the Alberta Government on the topic “Algae-based Biomass for the Production of Fuels and Chemicals” that may be found at Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA).

Emerging algae industry

It was during his studies that Dr. Pankratz realized that “the emerging algae industry has the potential to eclipse the oil and gas industry as it has been known to our generation. Anything that you can do with petroleum products can be created with algae and much more!” This would include energy, chemistries, plastics, food, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, clean air, clean water and preparation for travel in space.

As a result of his studies, the company which he now leads has expanded to include a significant focus on addressing what Dr. Pankratz believes to be the key impediment and holdback on the algae industry as a whole. There is need to drop the production cost of algae cultivation by an order of magnitude. Bring the cost of the biomass feedstock down by a factor of 10 and this industry will surge forward. This however is a non-trivial challenge. In particular if you attempt to do this in Canada.

Conventional thinking has been that microalgae cultivation can be produced most cost effectively in large open pond raceway systems located in temperate climates with an abundance of sunlight and access to water. Although this can be done in Canada, the long winters would effectively limit cultivation to the warmest 3-6 months depending on location.

Dr. Pankratz set out an extraordinarily bold challenge for Rainforest Algae Corp. to develop an environmentally controlled photobioreactor (PBR) system that would:

Enable the cultivation of algae year round.
Achieve doubling of both densities and yields of algae crops over previously published values.
Be capable of utilizing CO₂ from raw stack gases from natural gas power plants.
Develop tasty recipes that incorporate spirulina as an ingredient.
Develop a bio-refining process that would extract optimized value from the algae biomass to be able to produce protein for food at a cost of $20/kg by 2030…. Sooner if possible.