Page 33 - Flathead Beacon // 9.23.15

TRANSACTIONS
WEEKLY BUSINESS BRIEFING
HURRAW! FOUNDER TO KEYNOTE AT GLACIER STARTUP WEEKEND
Neil Stuber, creator and
founder of Hurraw! Balm in
Whitefish, will be the keynote
speaker at the Second Annual
Glacier Startup Weekend next
month. The event, which brings
together entrepreneurs, design-
ers, developers and startup
enthusiasts, is slated for Oct. 9-11
at Flathead Valley Community
College. Stuber is currently work-
ing with his wife/partner Corrie
Colbert on a small business ven-
ture in the cosmetics industry. Stuber will speak Oct. 9.
A lead-up event for Glacier Startup Weekend is scheduled for Sept. 24 from 6-8 p.m. at Casey’s in Whitefish. Give a practice pitch for a startup business and try to win a $100 ticket to the event. Organizer, mentors and former participants will be on hand to answer questions, discuss pitches and talk about all things entrepreneurial.
The startup event will feature business professionals working with participants to develop ideas and find success. The weekend culminates with presentations from business leaders. To register, visit glacier.start- upweekend.org.
Have a business announcement? If you would like to be featured in “Transactions,” please email information to [email protected]
and former software engineer in San Francisco, said the fire in January set the company back a full year, but it also offered an opportunity to tweak its technology and infrastructure, making it more efficient.
To that end, AACT partnered with Acutech, a Columbia Falls-based sup- ply chain manufacturer, which built the powerhouse’s carbon engine as well as all of its 304 stainless components. Using precision water jet and laser cut- ting, the parts were machined, MIG welded and fabricated at the company’s 16,000-square-foot facility.
Now that the planning and actual fabrication of the prototype green- house unit is complete, construction is underway in earnest on the Stoltze property, and the process must be tested and streamlined, at which point AACT hopes to expand to other lumber mills and larger facilities. The project is put- ting Montana on the map for renewable energy source hot spots, Smith said.
Called a Green Power House, the Algae Aquaculture Technology struc- ture resembles a geodesic Lego dome, and the floor is divided into pools in which the algae are grown.
The pools are actually raceway sys- tems designed to optimize the culti- vation and harvesting of algae and, because it takes eight days for an indi- vidual pool to grow the algae, one pool is harvested daily.
Carbon dioxide, normally considered an industrial pollutant, is captured and
used as a nutrient for the algae as well as some of the nitrogen-rich byproduct from the bioreactors. The algae are then fedintogeothermal-heatedbioreactors that consume the organic matter and produce methane, which is converted into electricity.
It’s basically a sophisticated form of composting, and Smith likens the biore- actor to a “mechanical buffalo.”
Among the changes to the design, Smith said, is a lower cost and faster assembly method, as well as safety improvements and a 25 percent increase in capacity.
Smith said the new powerhouse should be operational within a few months, and he hopes to build three additional facilities on the six acres of Stoltze land. The lumber company has a 10 percent ownership stake in the proj- ect, and the benefits to Stoltze are man- ifold since the company can convert its waste wood and heat into synthetic gas and electricity to power the plant.
AACT received its initial funding through a $350,000 grant from the Montana Department of Environmen- tal Quality, and is optimistic that indus- try will begin adopting the clean, green algae technology on a widespread basis, though he admits that “we are a nation oflateadopters.”
For more information on AACT’s facility and process, visit www.algaea- qua.com. For more information on Acu- tech, visit www.acutechworks.com.
[email protected]
IT’S BACK!
ALL YOU CAN EAT
SHRIMP!
MONDAY - THURSDAY AFTER 4PM SUNDAYS ALL DAY
MONGOLIAN GRILL
SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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