Cellana

Cellana is a genus of sea snails or limpets, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Nacellidae, the true limpets.

Distribution

This genus occurs in the temperate and tropical Indo-Pacific oceans, Hawaii (where they are known as ‘opihi and considered a delicacy) and around Australia and New Zealand. Species are also found around the coasts of Japan, the Red Sea, Mauritius, Madagascar, South Africa and the sub-Antartarctic Islands. One species, Cellana radiata, is cosmopolitan.

These sea snails feed by grazing on green macroalgae growing on rocky substrate in the intertidal zone. Some of these limpets can live up to 7 years, however most do not get older than 2–3 years. They reproduce by broadcasting their spawn in large, yolky eggs in great numbers (between 20,000 for C. flava and C. denticulata to 230,000 for C. ornata).

Species

Species within the genus Cellana include:

Cellana (company)

Cellana, Inc. is a San Diego- and Hawaii-based developer of algae-based bioproducts for biofuels, aquaculture and animal feeds, and Omega-3 nutraceutical/pharmaceutical applications. Cellana has received (or has been a member of consortia that have received) multiple multimillion-dollar grants from the United States Department of Energy and United States Department of Agriculture. On June 6, 2013, Cellana and Neste Oil, the world's largest refiner of renewable diesel, announced the signing of a multi-year, commercial-scale off-take agreement for algae-based biocrude oil.

Cellana, Inc. was founded in 2004 as HR BioPetroleum, Inc. and changed its name to Cellana, Inc. in May 2011. On January 31, 2011, Cellana LLC, a joint venture company formed by Royal Dutch Shell and HR BioPetroleum in 2007, became a wholly owned subsidiary of HR BioPetroleum, Inc./Cellana, Inc. Shell had previously announced on December 11, 2007 that it entered into a joint venture with HR BioPetroleum to, among other things, build and operate a demonstration facility in Hawaii for growing algae as a source of biofuels. This 2.5-hectare facility, known as the Kona Demonstration Facility (KDF) was completed and commissioned in 2009.