Future of Agriculture 116: Farming Algae with Martin Gross of Gross-Wen Technologies

Future of Agriculture

• Episode: Future of Agriculture 116: Farming Algae with Martin Gross of Gross-Wen Technologies
• Website: Future of Agriculture
• Feed URL: http://aggrad.libsyn.com/rss
• Duration: 00:37:00
• Published: 2018-08-29 11:00

Martin Gross is the Founder and President of Gross-Wen Technologies, a next generation wastewater treatment company that makes use of microalgae to provide a sustainable and efficient alternative to conventional water treatment methods. As President, he has raised over $3 million in Angel and Series A investments, applied for numerous patents, and served as Principal Investigator in non-diluting SBIR grant funding. Martin has a Ph.D. in Agriculture & Biosystems Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Food Science and Technology from Iowa State University.

Martin joins me today to discuss the potential of microalgae in innovating the world’s wastewater treatment industry. He explains how their technology works, what sets it apart from traditional methods, and why he believes their process is sustainable and efficient. He also shares how they grow microalgae and why we shouldn’t worry about the possibility of algae-produced toxicity in water as well as describes how accelerators impacted the growth of his company.

“How do you have a successful business with algae? There are two ways today. That is to clean water or produce high-value algae products.” - Martin Gross

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

• How Gross-Wen Technologies grows and farms algae.
• The major advantage of algae to bacteria or chemical to clean nitrogen phosphorus from water.
• Where the nitrogen-phosphorus in water originates.
• Martin's background and how he started Gross-Wen Technologies.
• What piqued his interest in starting a business.
• How the technology works and how they validated the process.
• What makes their system much more efficient and cost-effective than conventional algae-growing technology?
• The challenges in growing one species of algae.
• How have accelerators impacted his business?

Key Takeaways:

• Algae is better than bacteria or chemicals when it comes to cleaning water.
• An efficient water treatment system is sustainable.

Resources Mentioned:

• Ag Startup Engine
• Iowa State University Startup Factory

Connect with Martin Gross:

• Gross-Wen Technologies

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