Frequently Asked Questions

Technology

1. What kind of algae is used in the Aurora process?

   Aurora uses exclusive algae strains in its patented process. We screened a myriad of strains in search of promising traits, and we further optimized our portfolio by imparting superior performance characteristics to the strains.

2. What historic algae biofuel challenges can the Aurora process overcome?

   Aurora’s proprietary science and engineering process can address the contamination, harvesting and extraction issues that have historically hindered this technology from being cost competitive with fossil fuels.

3. How is Aurora’s process cost-efficient?

   Aurora has dissected every step in the fuel development cycle and has created an end-to-end system that has low cost as its primary driver: from taking advantage of marginal land and brackish seawater for operations, to developing highly-efficient algae strains, to utilizing advanced engineering that incorporates principles of wastewater treatment technology to processing fuel with minimal energy inputs.

4. What are Aurora’s resource demands?

   The company’s major resource demands are sunlight, brackish or salt water, carbon dioxide, and marginal land.

5. What are the environmental benefits of the Aurora Algae process?

   The Aurora Algae process has been carefully constructed to yield maximum environmental benefits without sacrificing biomass production capability. Aurora facilities maintain a light environmental footprint: they can be built on otherwise unusable land and utilize readily-available sea water. Our open pond systems require significantly less energy to operate than photobioreactor operations. Algae feed on carbon dioxide, which can be collected from nearby emitters and injected into the system, converting more than 90% of CO2 into fuel and biomass. After extraction, remaining biomass can be repurposed as a protein-rich product for human nutrition or animal feed.

6. Where is Aurora's pilot facility?

   Aurora Algae maintains its pilot facility at a location in coastal Florida.

7. What is the capacity of Aurora facilities?

   The pilot facility operating in Florida can produce approximately 3 tons of algal biomass per year. At full scale, our main production facility will be capable of producing 40,000 tons of algal biomass per year.

Corporate

1. What are Aurora's plans for the future?

   Having proven its technology on the pilot scale, Aurora is currently scaling to complete a 20-acre demonstration-scale facility. Aurora Algae plans to participate in the entire product value chain and not merely license its technology to other operators.

2. Who are Aurora's investors?

   Aurora Algae investors include Oak Investment Partners, Noventi Ventures and Gabriel Venture Partners.

3. How much funding does Aurora have?

   Aurora has raised $40 million in two rounds of funding.

4. How many employees work at Aurora?

   Aurora Algae has more than 70 employees on staff, and is growing to fill additional positions as the company expands.

5. What benefits will Aurora bring to CO2 producers?

   Aurora microalgae feed on carbon dioxide and sequester 90 percent of the CO2 fed into their environment. Because of this capability, Aurora will become a valuable partner to carbon dioxide emitters, especially in light of carbon tariffs, cap-and-trade programs and other upcoming incentives.