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TRANSACTIONS 33 BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 34
Business
Crews construct a green energy facility at F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co., designed by Acutech. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
Green Power House Rises from the Ashes
After a devastating fire set the Columbia Falls-based energy company back one year, Algae Aqua-Culture Technologies starts anew
Crews construct a green energy facility at F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co., designed by Acutech.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
When a structure fire destroyed the futuristic-looking octagonal dome in Columbia Falls, where Algae Aqua-Cul- ture Technologies housed its cut- ting-edge energy system, the devastat- ing setback cast doubt on the company’s bright future.
Nine months later, and the company has begun reconstruction of its green powerhouse, having leveraged the bout of misfortune into opportunity while
building on a new partnership to improve the innovative energy technology at its facility on property owned by F.H. Stol- tze Land and Lumber Co.
Michael Smith is president and co-founder of Algae Aqua-Culture Tech- nologies Inc. (AACT) and, along with other scientists, has engineered a sys- tem that uses industrial waste, like wood chips from the lumber manufacturing process at Stoltze, to cultivate algae and convert it into electricity-generating methane.
The technology, Smith said, will help reduce the carbon footprint of pollut- ing industries like timber and coal while providing cleaner, low-carbon energy alternatives and lucrative new revenue streams.
The process also yields a valuable byproduct in the form of nutrient-rich soil amendments and high-grade organic fertilizer, the markets for which are growing rapidly, Smith said.
AACT had been operating the demon- stration-scale greenhouse on Stoltze
land for several years while shipping its product to companies nationwide, and was on the cusp of bringing the technol- ogy to a widespread commercial-scale level after years of work.
So when a fire destroyed the main powerhouse on Jan. 24, the alternative energy company immediately began looking at how to recover from the loss and move forward with plans to redesign and streamline the destroyed prototype unit.
Smith, a mathematician, physicist
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SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM