BioLargo President and CEO Dennis Calvert's Video Interview with SNNLive at LD Micro Main Event XI

BioLargo President and CEO Dennis Calvert recently presented at the LD Micro Main Event XI in Los Angeles on December 4th. At this investor conference Dennis sat down with SNNLive's Robert Kraft for a video interview about BioLargo's business and outlook for 2019.

Watch the whole video here:



BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQB: BLGO) is a technology developer and environmental engineering company driven by a mission to "make life better" by delivering robust, sustainable solutions for a broad range of industries and applications, with a focus on clean water, clean air, and advanced wound care, according to the company’s website (see here: www.biolargo.com).
SNNLive caught up with Dennis Calvert, President & CEO of BioLargo, Inc. at the LD Micro "Main Event" 2018 in Bel Air, CA, and they discuss the following topics:
- Overview of BioLargo, Inc.
- Update since our last interview (click here)
- Industrial and VOC product
- What makes the company’s products unique in the marketplace
- Growth drivers going into 2019

For more information about BioLargo, Inc., please visit: www.biolargo.com

The interview may contain forward-looking statements about BioLargo, Inc. See BioLargo's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more complete information.

BioLargo Spotlight: OC Startups Now article Q&A - BioLargo’s Finances. Q&A with CEO Dennis Calvert…

Source: OC Startups Now

OC Startups Now will periodically run Q&A’s with interesting entrepreneurs, investors and other key players in the OC startup/innovation ecosystem, in their own words.

This Q&A is with Dennis Calvert, CEO of BioLargo, a chemical company developing and marketing innovative products for a range of industries. Recent reports predicting the company’s demise have been exaggerated, Calvert said. It’s just business as usual for the 20-year-old company that is still in the startup stage.

The company’s core expertise is the unique chemistry of iodine, which it has leveraged to develop the following: an industrial odor control product (currently marketed as CupriDyne Clean); an irrigation solution for chronic wounds; and a wastewater treatment solution.

The goal is to build independent companies around each of these products, which can then be spun out, with BioLargo acting as the catalyst and development engine.

A recent financial report by Edison Investment Research shows that BioLargo is generating revenue, although it’s in the early early stages of commercialization. 

The company had revenue of $327,000 in Q2, a substantial increase year-on-year (compared to $100,000 in Q2 of 2017). The net loss for Q2 was $3.6 million, of which $1.7 million comprised non-cash payments associated with convertible notes. The majority of these notes have been recently converted (from $6.8 million at the end of 2017 to $2 million now) so this expense is expected to decrease this significantly.

OCSN: Talk about the conversion from debt to equity over the past decade.

Calvert: We’ve received about $23 million in investment over the past 10 years. We have about $1.2 million in near-term debt.

In the early years, we used debt financing to offer investors yield, but the underlying terms provided for mandatory conversion into equity.

The total investment has allowed us to take ideas and convert them to create four business units, three technical platforms, two commercial business units and two that are about to emerge from R&D.

OCSN: What are your four business units? And which are generating revenue now?

Calvert: Our first business unit is Odor No More. It developed CupriDyne Clean, an odor control agent marketed to the solid waste management and water treatment industries, with potential inroads into other industries, like composting and animal waste.

This unit is on the cusp of positive cash flow. It’s secured national purchasing agreements with four of the largest waste handling companies in the industry. It now includes engineering design, construction, service and maintenance so it’s a full-service provider.

Our second unit is engineering. It’s just now reached the point ofsecuring contracts with outside customers, where revenue exceed expenses.

This unit was a new startup that was created by taking the innovation unit from one of the largest engineering companies in the industry, Chicago Bridge and Iron (CB&I). Earlier this year, CB&I merged into McDermott International

This unit has two goals: to supply internal services for BioLargo’s emerging tech and serve its own external clients to generate revenue.

The third business unit is Clyra Medical Technologies, a wound care startup that just announced a $1 million equity investment. (See related story here.)

BioLargo owns close to 50% of the equity. Cylra has received $3.5 million in equity investment to date.

The fourth unit deals, BioLargo Water, deals with water purification. It’s a year away from commercialization. It’s in the midst of four pre-commercial pilots being sponsored by grants. It’s received 65 grants to date.

The water purification market is potentially a $750 billion market. We (recently) received independent validation on the ability of our tech to remove micropollutants.

OCSN: Are you still considering a reverse stock split with the goal of uplisting to NASDAQ? (In a special shareholder meeting in September, a reverse stock split was approved. It would take a raise of $5 million to meet this listing requirement.)

Calvert: In making the decision for a reverse stock split, the company needs equity investment, no question. We believe that a national exchange is really required and a company running on the OTC has become increasingly difficult to manage.

But, we also believe the national capital markets are under extreme pressure right now, so we are at the point of evaluating all of our capital resources that would allow us to achieve positive cash flow and consider the option of uplisting to a national exchange.

We’re evaluating our options on a daily basis.

OCSN: Anything else you’d like to add?

Calvert: We have 20 Ph.D.’s and engineers involved in our business. One of the challenges we have perpetually faced over our journey is the notion that our value propositions sometimes can appear too good to be true. Our response is they are in fact true.

What’s new is we’re now achieving a level of commercial validation and accumulation of third-party validations that reinforce our original claims. But that’s required significant time and investment to achieve critical mass to stand in front of the industry and have our tech be recognized as a disruptor.

I don’t mind criticism. We speak openly about the challenges we face as a disruptor for change.

When we went into waste handling industry, we positioned ourselves with truth, as the only product that actually works. That means the market had been trained that there was no product that actually worked. Everything was a band-aid, nothing was a fix. When we said we would solve it, the natural reaction is to say “We don’t believe you.”

The challenge is if you believe nothing works why would you do anything? In many of the things we’re doing, we’re presenting claims that in each case, it’s never been seen before. And therein lies the challenge.

BioLargo’s subsidiary Clyra Medical secures over $1 million in direct investments to finalize the acquisition of the breakthrough stem cell therapy technology SkinDisc

WESTMINSTER, Calif., December 19, 2018 – BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQB:BLGO), developer of sustainable science and technologies and a full-service environmental engineering company, announced today that its partially owned subsidiary Clyra Medical Technologies, Inc. has secured over $1 million in new capital via direct investment and finalized its acquisition of a breakthrough stem cell therapy technology called “SkinDisc^TM”. Developed by Scion Solutions, LLC, SkinDisc^TM uses a homogenous cocktail to generate a cell-rich bio gel that supports the healing of chronic wounds. The product has been deployed clinically in over 250 patient cases with no adverse side effects, and successfully aided in the salvage of limbs that otherwise may have led to amputation and costly treatments.

In addition to the acquiring the SkinDisc^TM product, Clyra has engaged Scion’s founders to support its commercial strategy, including Dr. Brock Liden, a renowned wound specialist and expert in diabetic limb salvage, and Spencer Brown, a medical device industry veteran with more than 35 years of experience working in medical sales, account management, and distribution in the medical device industry. In addition to Dr. Liden and Mr. Brown, Scion’s founders include Tanya Rhodes, former VP of Innovation at Smith & Nephew, and a current Clyra consultant. The details of the Scion transaction were previously reported in a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 2, 2018 (link here).

Dennis P. Calvert, CEO of BioLargo commented, “Our core technologies are the foundation upon which we are building a successful company, and this is just one example. By funding Clyra through direct investment, we have secured dedicated capital to complete its products’ journey to market while also creating value for BioLargo’s shareholders through ownership in Clyra and its ongoing licensing arrangement. In this same vein, we intend to pursue direct investment for our BioLargo Water subsidiary in 2019. These developments serve to enhance the fundamental value of BioLargo while also helping to conserve capital.”

Calvert continued, “The completion of the Scion transaction is important for many reasons. First, a fairness opinion report written by an independent evaluator suggested that there is good evidence, based on comparable company analysis, that the combined value of Clyra and Scion would be approximately $33 million following this transaction. Second, the two technical platforms - Clyra antimicrobial products and the SkinDiscTM - represent substantial product platforms upon which to build an internationally competitive wound care company. Finally, Scion’s founders have successfully launched multiple products into the medical industry and bring crucial expertise on positioning our products in those markets. Of course, we remind our shareholders that we cannot predict the timing of the approval of our current application before the FDA, but that we are highly encouraged with the continued interaction with the FDA staff and believe we are on the right track to be successful soon.”

Clyra Medical’s antimicrobial technology feature a broad-spectrum of antimicrobial efficacy with no known acquired resistance, sustained release, biofilm efficacy, and bioharmony for skin and tissue. While Clyra realizes the need and opportunity across many medical disciplines, the initial targeted commercial markets will be in the areas of general wound therapy, infection control for the orthopedic surgery, and dental. The Clyra technology presents the potential for multiple additional product designs.

About BioLargo, Inc.

BioLargo, Inc. is an innovative technology developer and environmental engineering company driven by a mission to "make life better" by delivering robust, sustainable solutions for a broad range of industries and applications, with a focus on clean water, clean air, and advanced wound care. We develop and commercialize disruptive technologies by providing the capital, support, and expertise to expedite them from "cradle" to "maturity" (www.biolargo.com). Our engineering division features experienced professional engineers dedicated to integrity, reliability, and environmental stewardship (www.biolargoengineering.com). Our industrial odor control division, Odor-No-More (www.odornomore.com) features CupriDyne Clean Industrial Odor Eliminator (www.cupridyne.com), which eliminates the odor-causing compounds and VOCs rather than masking them, and is now winning over leading companies in the solid waste handling and wastewater industries and other industries that contend with malodors and VOCs. Our subsidiary BioLargo Water (www.biolargowater.ca) develops the Advanced Oxidation System "AOS," a disruptive industrial water treatment technology designed to eliminate waterborne pathogens and recalcitrant contaminants with better energy-efficiency and lower operational costs than incumbent technologies. Our subsidiary Clyra Medical (www.clyramedical.com) features effective and gentle solutions for chronic infected wounds to promote infection control and regenerative tissue therapy.

Contact Information

Dennis Calvert President and CEO BioLargo, Inc. 949-643-9540 x2

Safe Harbor Disclosure

This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from expectations, estimates and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “budget,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results.

BioLargo Spotlight: Introducing the Spiral AOS

In our previous blog posts that detailed the science behind BioLargo Water’s Advanced Oxidation System (AOS), we explained that the AOS treats water by generating reactive iodine molecules at its electrodes. The iodine molecules generated inside the AOS decontaminate and disinfect water in two fundamental ways: 1) by the oxidation of proteins inside bacteria, viruses, or protozoa and 2) by altering the structure of chemical pollutants, often breaking them down entirely. Explaining the mechanism of how the AOS works, we showcased just how effective the AOS is at reducing electrical and consumable costs while treating water. In this blog, we will elaborate upon recent radical design changes BioLargo Water has made to the AOS as part of our effort to continuously improve our technology, and we will illuminate how and why these decisions will result in a more effective and economical product for end-users.

Historically, AOS devices have conformed to a “stacked” design where water passes alternatingly through positive and negative electrodes one-by-one in a linear flow (see Figure 2, left side). The stacked AOS design is useful for a whole host of industrial applications, and its low cost and low energy value proposition still hold true. However, recent developments in AOS research and engineering design have yielded a new model of the AOS that has certain advantages over the stacked model for certain end-uses. Through development of the AOS, BioLargo Water discovered that the interface between positive electrodes and the spacer material is the most integral aspect of the AOS, being the location where much of the reactive iodine molecules are generated. This finding allowed the company’s scientists to exploit the interface’s benefits. As a result, BioLargo Water scientists designed a “Spiral” AOS device, with one positive electrode and one negative electrode coiled around each another multiple times. In maximizing the contact between water contaminants and the interface’s active chemicals, this design makes the decontamination and disinfection process dramatically more successful and efficient (Insert: image of spiral configuration).

Fig 1: Diagram of water flow through Spiral AOS

This spiral design has numerous benefits for customers. Beyond the obvious advantages of higher performance and lower energy requirements on a pound-for-pound basis, the “Spiral” AOS also significantly reduces the physical footprint. By reducing the size (by volume) of the AOS to approximately 1/5 of the older “Stacked” prototype, BioLargo Water’s design changes have transformed the AOS water treatment device to make the product more scalable, economically valuable, and commercially viable. With reduced spatial dimensions, the “Spiral” AOS is the most practical and feasible water treatment option for factories and consumer businesses that are already tight on space. The importance of this factor is illustrated by trends in the UV water disinfection market, where UV devices have grown progressively smaller over the years, allowing installation in tight spaces without causing operational disruption. It is clear that both industrial and consumer end-users prefer smaller water treatment devices.

Fig 2: Size comparison of old vs. new AOS

We are excited about the Spiral AOS because it expands the ability for this technology to scale up for different end-user applications. As always, work continues at BioLargo to improve the technology further, and we are working to refine the physical substrate materials inside the AOS to ensure its durability and maintenance needs are optimised for commercial settings. Once we have completed our ongoing process of attaining patents (which are already on-file), and complete our pre-commercial testing, the “Spiral” AOS will be ready for commercial trials and market launch. It is only a matter of time before this novel and revolutionary device makes a major impact in the water treatment industry. When it does, BioLargo predicts that this powerful, flexible, cost-efficient, compact water treatment product has the potential to provide affordable water and wastewater treatment to myriad end-user applications. The possibilities for the Spiral AOS are innumerable.

BioLargo Spotlight: Odor-No-More® Participates in Isle Utilities’ US TAG Events

Last week, BioLargo participated in two events put on by Isle Utilities, Inc., a leading clean tech accelerator group that operates globally in the water, waste, and energy sectors. These events are part of Isle Utilities’ Technology Approval Group (TAG) program, an innovation forum where leading early-adopter end-users, including major municipalities and utility companies, are exposed to innovative technology providers. Only a handful of companies are invited to each event, having been selected through a vote by end-user members.

Isle Utilities consists of a team of scientists, engineers, and industry experts from around the world, and they operate their TAG program in Europe, the US, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and South Africa. According to their website, Isle Utilities is “an independent technology and innovation consultancy that brings together technical and commercial specialists to facilitate relationships. [Their] team are highly skilled engineers and scientists with extensive and diverse consulting experience”. Their TAG program is well-respected for its ability to identify disruptive new technologies for the water and wastewater sector.

To learn more about the TAG program, watch Isle Utilities’ video:

Isle Utilities has a thorough vetting process to choose companies for utilities to vote on to participate in US TAG events, including a rigorous technical review. This ensures that participating municipalities and utilities are only exposed to the very best innovative technology developers and product suppliers. The fact that BioLargo was invited to participate in TAG events represents important industry recognition of its innovative product CupriDyne® Clean.

BioLargo participated in the San Antonio, TX and Dayton, OH, TAG US events, where decision-makers representing municipal water utilities learned about the company’s disruptive industrial odor and VOC control product, CupriDyne Clean.

Odor-No-More’s Vice President of Industrial Sales AJ Sexton V represented the company. He commented on the events, “The Isle Utilities TAG events were terrific. We presented to over 60 people from regional utilities between the two meetings and had the opportunity to have direct one-on-one discussions with representatives from numerous potential clients. We applaud Isle Utilities for organizing these great events.”

US TAG attendees. Odor-No-More's AJ Sexton is 7th from the left

BioLargo Spotlight: BioLargo Engineering Talks About Natural Gas Conversion

You might remember in a couple of different blog posts over the past few months, we discussed two ongoing projects for clients building plants that will generate fuels – from solid waste and from natural gas. The environmental engineering work we do for these clients is – we believe – exceptionally important both to the growth prospects of our company and to our overarching company goal of helping foster a sustainable future for the world. We also believe that as part of our role as environmental stewards, it’s important to promote education in the areas of science, technology, and environmental engineering. For that reason, today we want to discuss one of the areas relevant to this work– the process of conversion of natural gas into usable fuels.

A bit of Chemistry

In theory it is possible to convert any run-of-the-mill hydrocarbon, such as methane, which makes up about 85% of natural gas, into almost any other hydrocarbon.  In fact, nature does this sort of thing all the time.  Plants, comprised of many complex hydrocarbons, are converted through time, heat and pressure into crude oil, coal and natural gas.  Plants themselves are chemical factories in miniature.  Through photosynthesis, plants convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into complex sugars, cellulose and myriad other complex hydrocarbons with myriad physical and chemical properties.  By adding in some nitrogen, oxygen and few other ingredients from the soil, plants can make proteins, oils, sugars, and in some cases, such as the nightshade plant, alkaloid poisons.  Plants create chemicals that mankind refines into medicines and drugs.  For example, morphine, nicotine, aspirin and caffeine are four plant supplied chemicals that directly impact man’s wellbeing, for better or worse.  The conversion of natural gas into liquid fuels in our client projects is not nearly as complex as what is going on in that oak tree growing in your back yard.

In brief, the process goes something like this:  methane from natural gas is partially oxidized, that is partially burned in a low oxygen environment to form carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H₂).  Water vapor is added as a source of additional hydrogen.  Some of the CO reacts with the water vapor (the “water gas shift reaction”) to form hydrogen (H₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂).  The CO₂ formed in the reaction is then stripped from the gas mixture.  In some designs, direct steam reforming is used where water vapor is directly reacted at high temperature, with methane to form CO and H₂.  The CO and H₂ are then pushed through a catalyst, which converts the two simple chemicals into larger molecules, typically alkanes, which are saturated hydrocarbons like methane or propane.  The catalyst selected controls whether synthetic gasoline, diesel, jet fuel or paraffin waxes is produced.

A bit of History

Perhaps because we don’t see natural gas conversion plants on every street corner, we tend to think of the technology as something new, at bit cutting edge.  But the truth is that the process was developed in 1925 by two German chemists, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch.  Today we call the process the Fischer-Tropsch process or “F-T” for short, I imagine to avoid having to learn how to pronounce Tropsch (usually pronounced Trope, with a long “o”).  Germany made great use of the process in World War II - having relatively small native oil reserves, Germany was able to fuel their war machine using the Fischer-Tropsch process by converting coal into liquid fuels.  The WWII German synthetic fuels industry was able to produce 3.7 million barrels per month by early 1944, utilizing 25 F-T plants scattered across Germany and the occupied lands.  The Pölitz plant alone was able to produce 575,000 tons of fuel in 1943.  A documentary on the topic can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwHypKFYzGg.

A bit of Technology

The F-T process uses a specialized catalyst to facilitate the conversion of CO into heavier molecules, mostly alkanes.  An alkane is a class or family of chemicals that all share the general formula C_nH_2n+2. Don’t let the symbols throw you.  The formula just says that for every (n) number of carbon atoms there are (2n+2) hydrogen atoms, for example C₃H₈ or C₆H₁₄. The family includes many useful compounds whose names are in general use by the public, such as methane, butane, propane, and octane, to name a few.  As the number of carbon atoms in each molecule increases, the higher the compound’s boiling point becomes.  Methane with one carbon is a gas, even at the North Pole in January.  Propane with three carbons is a gas at room temperature but can be compressed to form a liquid for use in gas grills, and home heating as well as other uses.  Octane, with eight carbons, is a liquid with about the same boiling point as gasoline.  Paraffin wax is an alkane with 20 to 30 carbon atoms and is a solid at room temperature but is still flammable if given enough encouragement.  The F-T process produces a mixture of alkanes from methane (one carbon) to paraffin wax (30 or more carbon atoms).

The percentage of each alkane produced is controlled by the selection of catalyst and the operating conditions in the F-T catalytic converter.  The most commonly used catalysts include those made from transition metals like cobalt, iron and ruthenium. For natural gas F-T processes, cobalt is the most commonly used.  Unfortunately, it is impossible to have the process produce only the alkane desired.  Mixtures of different alkanes are inevitable. So, the F-T unit is often followed by a catalytic cracker where the heavier alkanes can be thermally “cracked” to reform lighter, often more desirable liquid fuels.  The process produces very pure liquid fuels, such as ultra-low sulfur synthetic diesel and high purity jet fuel.

Technology has surged forward since WWII and modern materials science has created new catalysts that are significantly more efficient at converting CO into alkanes and allowing simpler upstream gasification steps.  The newer catalysts also help narrow the range of alkanes produced, making refining the final products easier and more cost effective.  It is now possible to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel at prices less than the current retail price of petroleum sourced ultra-low sulfur diesel. Modern designs also include secondary processes to capture and make use of what were once waste materials, such as carbon dioxide, extra hydrogen and organic chemicals that were formed as byproducts.

A bit of Economics

So, if the technology is mature and the raw materials to feed the process are plentiful, why don’t we see F-T conversion plants on every street corner?  The simplest answer is we don’t need to.  The graph below, taken from the US Government website https://www.energy.gov shows that the United States started to produce more oil than it imported in early 2014, and it’s simply more cost-efficient for us to procure oil the old-fashioned way.

It remains much less expensive to drill, pump and refine crude oil than to create synthetic fuels from other hydrocarbons. As long as the price of crude oil is below some undefined trigger point, synthetic fuel plants will be rare. Note that we mentioned that we could produce F-T ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel at less than the retail price of petroleum based ultra-low sulfur diesel.  However, to be competitive, the production price needs to be competitive with the wholesale, raw production price of the petroleum-based products.

Occasionally, the undefined trigger point is reached and excitement builds in the synthetic fuels industry.  Each time world events create political unrest and the price of crude oil goes up, the number of proposed or planned synthetic fuel plants escalates.  However, by the time the planning, design, and permitting of a new plant is completed, the crisis is over, and the price of oil falls back making the new plants economically unsound.

There are other reasons we don’t have F-T conversion plants across the country.  One, the capital and infrastructure invested in traditional petroleum refining is staggering and not easily abandoned.  The mega-companies that make up the oil industry are resistant to new perhaps, dare I say it, disruptive approaches.  And, small companies don’t have the economies of scale to easily compete in that market.  Another reason is the history of the F-T process itself, being used so effectively by the Nazis in WWII.  It was not, of course, the fault of the process that its first great accomplishment was to fuel what is generally considered the most evil regime in the history of the planet.  Nevertheless, the stain of the Nazis remains and is perpetuated unintentionally by every professor who has ever taught about the F-T process, who dwell on the history and first large-scale use of the technology.

Of course, there will come a day when the world’s oil reserves will be expended, and other sources of energy will need to be developed and exploited.  Perhaps there is some comfort in the knowledge that as that day approaches, there already exists a technology that can convert less useful hydrocarbons into more useful forms; trash into treasure in a sense.  BLEST is already involved with a project to convert municipal solid waste into F-T fuels with the expectation that 1,000 tons of high-grade synthetic fuels will be produced daily, consuming materials that would otherwise go to the local landfill.  Trash into treasure, indeed.

In theory, if all our fuel came from F-T conversion plants, we would have overall better environmental outcomes from our fuel production because of the absence of drilling, fracking, and refining of crude oil and the environmental outcomes associated with them. BLEST is therefore proud to be a part of these projects and hopes to assist industry leaders in fostering this type of process and technology throughout the future.

By Randall Moore

President, BioLargo Engineering, Science & Technologies (BLEST)

Mr. Moore is an engineer/executive with more than 30 years of industrial commercial experience. Most recently he served as Manager of Operations for Consulting and Engineering for the Knoxville, Tennessee office of CB&I Environmental & Infrastructure, Inc. Prior to that, from February 2013 – May 2017, he was the Manager of Operations at Integrated Environmental Solutions a Consulting and Engineering group within CB&I, Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc.

A Thanksgiving Message from BioLargo and an Important Press Release on Micropollutant Treatment by the AOS

Dear Stockholder,

First, let me wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and say THANK YOU! 

We have so much to be thankful for, and a few highlights deserve a mention in light of this special holiday:

• The BioLargo Technology. When we first met Ken Code over a decade ago, he shared the gift of his scientific discoveries and the enormous and important duty that comes with unique and innovative technologies like ours designed to make the world a better place. 
• You, and each of our investors. Without our investors’ continued support, our journey and our technologies would be impossible. Our journey – from idea to fully developed and finished products, and all the barriers that come with it, is most certainly not for the faint of heart. We have had to fight for every inch and the journey has most certainly tested our resolve and patience. Rest assured, we are not deterred, and because of our continual progress, we are more excited than ever before. And we thank you for your support on this journey.
• Team members. We have assembled a diverse team of highly qualified innovators, engineers, scientists, and operators that are fearless and driven by our mission. They are special and critical to our ongoing success.
• Grant Supporters. We have now received more than 60 grants from a host of Canadian federal and provincial agencies as well as industry members in support of our clean water technology. The pursuit of such an ambitious vision like ours that can impact the world for good would never be possible without support like this.  It is and will continue to be critical to our ongoing success.
• Critics. Yes, we are grateful for the insights of our critics. “Iron sharpens iron” – and our tools have been finely honed to razor sharpness. Remember, in each of our pursuits – clean air, clean water and advanced wound care – we are an innovator presenting novel scientific discoveries that have never been seen before in such meaningful pursuits. Because our technologies are novel and unprecedented, our challenge has been to prove, prove and prove again. 

As an example, we have just released a press release detailing a very important recent study where the AOS was shown, by an expert 3rd party research lab at the University of Alberta, to effectively eliminate specific micropollutant pharmaceuticals that are a major problem in municipal wastewater treatment. Because there is no economically feasible solution for these contaminants in municipal wastewater treatment, these results make the AOS a breakthrough in advanced municipal wastewater treatment. The press release is below.

Our continued success in science and now our growing commercial success reminds us to be THANKFUL and excited for 2019.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Dennis Calvert

President and CEO

BioLargo, Inc.

Press Release below

BioLargo's Advanced Oxidation System (AOS) Test Data Show Breakthrough to Treat and Reduce the Toxicity of Micropollutants Associated with Municipal Wastewater

Westminster, CA - November 20, 2018 - BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQB:BLGO), developer of sustainable science and technologies and a full-service environmental engineering company, today announced the completion of a third-party study indicating the company's Advanced Oxidation System (AOS) water treatment technology can eliminate certain toxic micropollutant contaminants associated with municipal wastewater. Micropollutants are widespread and persistent contaminants of significant concern to regulators due to environmental and human health concerns, and are difficult to treat using conventional wastewater treatment technologies (such as UV and biological treatment). Consequently, discharge of micropollutants in municipal wastewater effluents is currently a high priority issue for regulators and municipalities. Due to the lack of existing economically viable solutions for the elimination of micropollutants from municipal wastewater, these findings make the AOS a breakthrough in advanced municipal wastewater treatment.

BioLargo had previously reported on a third-party study conducted in collaboration with researchers at the Centre Des Technologies de L'Eau suggesting its AOS technology effectively removes certain pharmaceutical by-products (i.e., micropollutants) from water (Link here).

In this follow-up study conducted by Dr. Greg Goss, an expert in aquatic toxicology at the University of Alberta, in collaboration with BioLargo's Canadian subsidiary BioLargo Water, Inc., Dr. Goss examined the environmental safety of AOS-treated municipal wastewater to demonstrate it did not produce toxic by-products, and whether the AOS' ability to eliminate pharmaceuticals from water would improve the environmental safety and water quality of municipal wastewater "spiked" with high concentrations of micropollutant contaminants of particular concern to regulators.

This study succeeded on both fronts, demonstrating that water treated by the AOS technology was non-toxic to certain aquatic organisms typically used for testing whole effluent toxicity for the EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permits Program, such as

Daphnia and rainbow trout, as well as zebrafish embryos. Additionally, the AOS eliminated biomarker responses of municipal wastewater that has been experimentally contaminated (spiked) with compounds (benzo[a]pyrene and 17β-estradiol) known to negatively affect those organisms.

Further, the study showed that the AOS reduces the well-documented aberrant endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) effects of 17β-estradiol (an estrogen derivative) on rainbow trout. AOS was able to reduce both the normal EDC effects of municipal wastewater on rainbow trout and was also successful in removing 17β-estradiol from municipal wastewater spiked with much higher levels of the hormone.

These results represent promising evidence that the AOS can remove micropollutants that are an emerging concern to the water treatment industry. Given that micropollutants are bioactive and persistent contaminants that are not removed by traditional wastewater treatment methods, AOS has the potential to fill an important niche treatment gap with growing demand: effective and cost-efficient removal of micropollutants in wastewater treatment.

Dr. Greg Goss commented on the results, "More work is needed, but it appears that the AOS treatment is a major technical breakthrough for the removal of micropollutants from wastewater."

This work was funded in part by the Canadian Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP).