Dr. Isaac Berzin

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  www.goearthfriendlynow.com/the-plot-to-save-the-planet/ - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 7/22/2009  

  Among his finer accounts, "The Carbon-Muncher" tells the fascinating story of a former MIT researcher, Isaac Berzin, who just may have figured out how to reengineer algae to turn carbon dioxide into a biofuel to fill our gas tanks. It's one of the more encouraging examples of progress in alternative energy, featuring a visionary entrepreneur - not an already massive and powerful company like, say, General Electric - who could quite literally change the world. After tweaking some algae genes to astonishing results, Berzin quit academia and set up a lab in his neighbor's basement, nearly went broke (twice), then found a daring investor and a smart executive to help sell his innovation. Today his company, GreenFuel, is involved in a pilot project with the Arizona Public Service Company: Berzin's algae are now gobbling up carbon and churning out biodiesel.

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  www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984030.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/17/2008    Last Visited: 5/17/2008  

  When Dr. Isaac Berzin talks about algae, he forgets everything else.He starts talking a mile a minute, and sometimes he talks about true love."When I look at them through the microscope, I see them doing belly dances, and they have this small mustache that they wave.They are really cute," he says with a passion that he makes no effort to hide.He laughs and then pauses to reflect for a moment."But because I am not a biologist I can look at them a little like a child," he tries to explain.
  ...
  Dr. Berzin, 40, is wearing a blue suit, and his hair is held in place with glistening gel.Eight months ago he returned to Israel from the United States after generating a research breakthrough that changed his life.Berzin, the founder of GreenFuel Technologies - a U.S. company that produces green fuel from algae - discovered that "green slime" contains one of the keys to the alternative fuel the world is seeking.His company is the first ever to develop and produce biofuels from algae that are bred on gases emitted by power plants.
  
  Advertisement
  
  It might sound like some sort of magic trick to put algae, CO2 and sunlight into a box and come out with fuel, but Berzin did it.
  ...
  "It's logical, really, when you think about it," Berzin continues, "because all liquid fuels are compressed ancient organic matter, the outcome of photosynthesis.
  ...
  Thanks to that happiness, Time magazine this month included Berzin in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2008.He is in the company of George Bush, Hillary Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (as a couple).Berzin is one of four people who made the glittering list owing to their environmental activity.
  ...
  Berzin, an expert on alternative energy, had not expected to be included on the list.He got the news via e-mail about a month ago."It reminded me of the feeling I had when I submitted my doctoral dissertation," he recalls.
  ...
  In a large conference hall at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Berzin declares that the world is on the threshold of a vast change."An era has ended," he asserts without hesitation.
  ...
  "It was known that vegetable oil is the original material of fuel," Berzin explains.
  ...
  Berzin decided to act.He left MIT eight years ago and founded GreenFuel, whose professed aim is to produce green fuel from algae.The Israeli researcher was intent on solving the riddle that the best American researchers in the field had labored over for two decades.GreenFuel began to develop a distinctive method of reproducing algae, one that does not use up agricultural land or clean water, while at the same time consuming a considerable quantity of carbon dioxide, one of the most pernicious of the greenhouse gases."In the technological world it was a crazy decision," he admits."You have to be crazy to leave an institution like MIT for an uncertain future."
  
  Berzin had no money to launch his ambitious project, so he borrowed $200,000 from two close friends."Looking back on it today," he says, "I understand how much I didn't know.
  ...
  In his childhood, Berzin, who grew up in Ramat Gan, kept his distance from the world of the exact sciences.
  ...
  Berzin established his first energy farm adjacent to the power plant at MIT.
  ...
  "We succeeded in finding a different path," Berzin goes on.
  ...
  Berzin has registered 12 patents that enshrine his rights to the technology connecting an energy farm to a power plant.In 2005, in the heart of the Arizona desert, he chalked up another achievement when he set up the world's first trial project adjacent to a power plant of APS, Arizona's largest electrical utility company.
  ...
  "The good thing about Itzik's [Isaac's] technology is that we are recycling the toxin and creating a new industry.It's a win-win situation for everyone.
  ...
  "I came out of the MIT hothouses with a technology and a business model, but without any money," Berzin says.
  ...
  Financing for Berzin's project actually came from Europe, where, he says, "quality of the environment" is a genuine, deep commitment.
  ...
  Berzin is already looking forward to cultural implications for his scientific-technological breakthrough.
  ...
  Berzin, a senior faculty member at the Interdisciplinary Center, is now busy establishing an Israel-based international institute to formulate an alternative energy policy.With the thriving market for growing algae as a source of energy - more than 250 companies and universities are engaged in this sphere - Berzin has decided to focus on setting policy.
  ...
  Berzin intends to recruit his extensive connections in the energy industry for Israel's benefit.
  ...
  Alternative energy and Dr. Berzin
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  Alternative energy and Dr. Berzin

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  www.roomformilk.com/find/processing - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 8/21/2008  

  Jan 11th, 2006 · Isaac Berzin, a rocket scientist at MIT has come up with an idea for using algae to clean up power-plant exhaust.His research began 3 years ago in an experiment for growing algae on the International Space Station.His idea consists of building algae ,

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  www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_summit_spe - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 5/24/2009  

  Dr. Isaac Berzin
  ...
  Dr. Isaac Berzin is the Founding Director the Institute for Renewable Energy Policy (IREP) at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC), Israel and an Affiliated Scientist at MIT. Isaac was named one the 100 most influential people in politics, business, and science in 2008 by the Time magazine. He is the founder of Green Fuel Technologies in Cambridge; his innovative work in Clean Energy has won numerous awards. Dr. Isaac Berzin is the inventor of over 12 patents (some pending) and holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

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  www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_summit_spe - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 5/24/2009  

  Dr. Isaac Berzin Christians United for Israel: Speakers at the 2009 CUFI Summit
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  Dr. Isaac Berzin
  ...
  Dr. Isaac Berzin is the Founding Director the Institute for Renewable Energy Policy (IREP) at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC), Israel and an Affiliated Scientist at MIT. Isaac was named one the 100 most influential people in politics, business, and science in 2008 by the Time magazine. He is the founder of Green Fuel Technologies in Cambridge; his innovative work in Clean Energy has won numerous awards. Dr. Isaac Berzin is the inventor of over 12 patents (some pending) and holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

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  www.masshightech.com/stories/2008/10/20/daily19-GreenFu - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/21/2008    Last Visited: 10/21/2008  

  Founded in 2001 on technology developed by former CTO and MIT researcher Isaac Berzin, GreenFuel has brought in $36 million in private funding.

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  www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El2141 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/2/2009    Last Visited: 2/2/2009  

  Green vision: Isaac Berzin, founder of GreenFuel Technologies, is now setting up an alternative energy policy institute in Israel.
  
  Isaac Berzin to enlist Israelis into the business of green
  ...
  Thanks to a little green vision in the form of algae, Isaac Berzin, the founder of GreenFuel Technologies in Cambridge MA, has returned to Israel to help turn Israeli ingenuity into action. Now a senior fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Berzin has plans to build a new Institute for Alternative Energy Policy in Israel under the IDC.
  
  Berzin looks to collect the best-fit alternative energy solutions from across academia and the industry in Israel - about 10 different technology platforms - to build a center of excellence, "10 times bigger and stronger than GreenFuel," Berzin tells ISRAEL21c
  
  Recently voted as a Time Magazine most influential person for 2008, if anyone could build a biofuel powerhouse in Israel it would be Berzin, who has a kind of rock star popularity in the US for his work with GreenFuel. Continuing on as an advisor in the company, he says, "GreenFuel is doing great, the baby is walking now."
  
  The father of three, who now lives in Jerusalem, sees the importance of creating a real solution to end the world's dependence on oil within the next few years. If it's not found, in 10 years he says, the planet will have "reached the point of no return."
  
  Taking advantage of Israeli technology and research, Berzin is planning to have a serious biofuel solution ready within five years. While there is no one silver bullet solution, he admits, Israel has all the tools to start making a renewable fuel alternative.
  
  Israel's toolbox includes decades-long research into water technologies and grey-water irrigation, and the know-how for taking advantage of low-quality land and growing crops on brackish water. "Algae can grow in salt water, with sewage and on any type of land quality," says Berzin. "The world is moving to a 'grow your own solution' for energy crops, and there is no reason why Israel shouldn't be a leading country in this field," he says.
  
  The new institute he is currently setting up, will develop sustainable and strategic global alternative energy policies and will collaborate with the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) based in Washington, where Berzin is also a senior fellow.
  
  A representative from the IAGS wrote ISRAEL21c, "[We] congratulate senior fellow Dr. Isaac Berzin for his inclusion in TIME Magazine's 2008 list of the world's 100 most influential people. Berzin received this honor for his important scientific contribution to the development of alternative fuels and for his leadership role in the global movement to end the world's oil dependence."
  
  Earlier this month, Berzin signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US Department of Energy as an "honest broker" for helping his new institute choose what technologies and research to implement. The institute, after all, is expected to be a moneymaking endeavor as well.
  
  According to Berzin, investing in the clean fuel solutions of oil-rich algae is a "zero-risk exercise.

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  www.ajchouston.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=kiKW - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/26/2008    Last Visited: 8/28/2009  

  Berzin to present at Chapter energy forum Berzin Isaac Berzin, Time magazine's most influential person for 2008, will participate in the Chapter's energy forum on Monday, Jan. 12 from 10:15 am to 1:30 pm at the Omni Houston Hotel. Thanks to a little green vision in the form of algae, Berzin, the founder of GreenFuel Technologies in Cambridge MA, has returned to Israel to help turn Israeli ingenuity into action. Now a senior fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Berzin has plans to build a new Institute for Alternative Energy Policy in Israel under the IDC. Berzin received the TIME honor for his important scientific contribution to the development of alternative fuels and for his leadership role in the global movement to end the world's oil dependence."
  
  Berzin looks to collect the best-fit alternative energy solutions from across academia and the industry in Israel - about 10 different technology platforms - to build a center of excellence. Berzin has a kind of rock star popularity in the US for his work with GreenFuel. Continuing on as an advisor in the company, he says, "GreenFuel is doing great, the baby is walking now."
  
  The father of three, who now lives in Jerusalem, sees the importance of creating a real solution to end the world's dependence on oil within the next few years. If it's not found, in 10 years he says, the planet will have "reached the point of no return."

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  www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017499248&pagen - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/10/2008    Last Visited: 10/10/2008  

  However, Isaac Berzin of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya disagreed with Accenture's analysis.
  
  "David Ben-Gurion once said, 'There are only experts on the past and none on the future.' This study looks at the past and the old way of doing things," he said.
  
  The point isn't to integrate bio-fuels into the global petroleum supply chain, Berzin contended.
  ...
  Berzin is creating an energy policy center at the IDC.He made Time Magazine's list of 100 most influential in the sciences last year with his work on algae.
  
  "The distribution model must be decentralized rather than centralized.Today's petroleum market is not the model," he added.
  
  The report acknowledged that the increase in fuel distributors was changing the shape of the energy market.
  
  Berzin was more optimistic about the future of bio-fuels.If they can be made to be cheap, they can be sold, he told the Post.
  
  Regarding competition from other sources, Berzin stressed that there wouldn't be much competition since every country would have a different energy crop.Some would use bio-fuels and some would use algae or something else.
  
  "China, for example, is more suited to algae than bio-fuels," he said.
  
  Regarding investment, Berzin was dismissive of the study's concerns.
  
  "If you can get a 15% return on your investment, then there is no lack of money," he said.

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  www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984034.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/15/2008    Last Visited: 5/15/2008  

  When Dr. Isaac Berzin talks about algae, he forgets everything else.He starts talking a mile a minute, and sometimes he talks about true love."When I look at them through the microscope, I see them doing belly dances, and they have this small mustache that they wave.They are really cute," he says with a passion that he makes no effort to hide.He laughs and then pauses to reflect for a moment."But because I am not a biologist I can look at them a little like a child," he tries to explain.
  ...
  Dr. Berzin, 40, is wearing a blue suit, and his hair is held in place with glistening gel.Eight months ago he returned to Israel from the United States after generating a research breakthrough that changed his life.Berzin, the founder of GreenFuel Technologies - a U.S. company that produces green fuel from algae - discovered that "green slime" contains one of the keys to the alternative fuel the world is seeking.His company is the first ever to develop and produce biofuels from algae that are bred on gases emitted by power plants.
  
  It might sound like some sort of magic trick to put algae, CO2 and sunlight into a box and come out with fuel, but Berzin did it.
  ...
  "It's logical, really, when you think about it," Berzin continues, "because all liquid fuels are compressed ancient organic matter, the outcome of photosynthesis.
  ...
  Thanks to that happiness, Time magazine this month included Berzin in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2008.He is in the company of George Bush, Hillary Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (as a couple).Berzin is one of four people who made the glittering list owing to their environmental activity.
  ...
  Berzin, an expert on alternative energy, had not expected to be included on the list.He got the news via e-mail about a month ago."It reminded me of the feeling I had when I submitted my doctoral dissertation," he recalls.
  ...
  In a large conference hall at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Berzin declares that the world is on the threshold of a vast change."An era has ended," he asserts without hesitation.
  ...
  "It was known that vegetable oil is the original material of fuel," Berzin explains.
  ...
  Berzin decided to act.He left MIT eight years ago and founded GreenFuel, whose professed aim is to produce green fuel from algae.The Israeli researcher was intent on solving the riddle that the best American researchers in the field had labored over for two decades.GreenFuel began to develop a distinctive method of reproducing algae, one that does not use up agricultural land or clean water, while at the same time consuming a considerable quantity of carbon dioxide, one of the most pernicious of the greenhouse gases."In the technological world it was a crazy decision," he admits."You have to be crazy to leave an institution like MIT for an uncertain future."
  
  Berzin had no money to launch his ambitious project, so he borrowed $200,000 from two close friends."Looking back on it today," he says, "I understand how much I didn't know.
  ...
  In his childhood, Berzin, who grew up in Ramat Gan, kept his distance from the world of the exact sciences.
  ...
  Berzin established his first energy farm adjacent to the power plant at MIT.
  ...
  "We succeeded in finding a different path," Berzin goes on.
  ...
  Berzin has registered 12 patents that enshrine his rights to the technology connecting an energy farm to a power plant.In 2005, in the heart of the Arizona desert, he chalked up another achievement when he set up the world's first trial project adjacent to a power plant of APS, Arizona's largest electrical utility company.
  ...
  "The good thing about Itzik's [Isaac's] technology is that we are recycling the toxin and creating a new industry.It's a win-win situation for everyone.
  ...
  "I came out of the MIT hothouses with a technology and a business model, but without any money," Berzin says.
  ...
  Financing for Berzin's project actually came from Europe, where, he says, "quality of the environment" is a genuine, deep commitment.
  ...
  Berzin is already looking forward to cultural implications for his scientific-technological breakthrough.
  ...
  Berzin, a senior faculty member at the Interdisciplinary Center, is now busy establishing an Israel-based international institute to formulate an alternative energy policy.With the thriving market for growing algae as a source of energy - more than 250 companies and universities are engaged in this sphere - Berzin has decided to focus on setting policy.
  ...
  Berzin intends to recruit his extensive connections in the energy industry for Israel's benefit.

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