International Lemna Association lives up to its name

We changed the name of our new duckweed organization from National Duckweed Association to International Lemna Association this past week. Our focus has been global from the beginning so this outward shift better reflects our true purpose. Today we had our first international conference call from several corners of the world. It was a “meet and greet”- everyone getting to know each other’s duckweed expertise and exploring potential synergies for business opportunities. The energy was palpable.

One caller commented, “Duckweed is the new algae.” (And here I thought I’d coined that phrase.) I  wouldn’t be a bit surprised if duckweed takes off like a rocket in the aquaculture arena for bioeverything products. Duckweed is more versatile, easier to grow, harvest, and is more robust in many ways than algae.

What algae has going for it is that it grows a little faster than duckweed and incorporates 3 dimensions of space, rather than duckweed’s two, and produces oil rather than starch. Still, if you can harvest 70 dry weight tons of duckweed a year in Louisiana from one acre of water surface, then you’ve got a lot of biomass to do anything you want.

Disclaimer: The rest of the country does not have the growing conditions that Louisiana boasts and is in the 20-30 ton dry weight/acre on average. More if you tweak it.

I still advocate algae and am working on a biofuel project with it at the moment, but see the gathering energy around duckweed. Couldn’t be more delighted.