The Fourth Asia-Oceania Algae Innovation Summit was held at the East Lake International Conference Center in Wuhan during Sept. 18 and 21, 2016.

The Fourth Asia-Oceania Algae Innovation Summit was held at the East Lake International Conference Center in Wuhan during Sept. 18 and 21, 2016. More than 600 people including scientists, experts, scholars, enterprise representatives and government officials from over 40 countries and regions attended the summit. The chairperson of the summit is Prof. ZHAO Jindong (CAS academician), director of Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) and vice chairperson of the summit is Prof. HU Qiang. 

Prof. ZHAO Jindong, Prof. YUAN Zhiming (president of Wuhan Branch, Chinese Academy of Sciences), vice chairman of the CPPCC Hubei Provincial Committee, and GUO Yuejin, director general of Science and Technology Department of Hubei, addressed at the opening ceremony respectively. Prof. HU Qiang gave a keynote speech with the title of “Algae biofuels: How far is it from a reality?”    

The theme of the summit is “Accelerate Research and Commercialization of Algae”. 110 oral presentations and 180 posters were made at the summit. Topics included large-scale cultivation around the world, recent advances in harvest technology, from bioprospecting to lipid biology and photosynthesis, Japan-China industry review on algae biotechnology, systems biology of algae, biological carbon capture and utilization, new insights from algae cultivation systems, conversion of algae biomass to biodiesels and hydrocarbons, biorefinery and high value products, crop protection and culture management, and innovations in algae biotechnology. Two special symposiums “Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology of Algae” and “Commercialization of Algae” were held during the summit. Besides, a presentation session was arranged for student and young investigators.    

The summit highlighted recent scientific and engineering breakthroughs in algal biotechnology. Strains development using synthetic and systems biology, innovations in algae cultivation, harvesting, extraction and conversion to various products, and valorization of algal biomass, and sustainability models were presented. At the summit, experts discussed the roles of algae in wastewater bioremediation and CO₂ capture and utilization.    

The first Asia-Oceania Algae Innovation Summit was originally conceived and organized by Professors Makoto Watanabe and Isao Inoue and was launched in 2010, Tsukuba, Japan. Its missions were to provide a platform for scientists, engineers, government officials, and industry representatives to review the current status of R&D, national policies, and investment trends in algae-based fuels and products. The second AOAIS was successfully held in Thailand 2012 with a strong sponsorship by PTT, and AOAIS 2014 was hosted by Advanced Biomass R&D Center in Korea.