Exxon Thinks It Can Create Biofuel From Algae At Massive Scale

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March 7, 2018

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by Adele Peters (Fast Company) The oil and gas giant says it could be making 10,000 barrels a day within a few years–a small drop in the amount of oil it produces, but a huge boost in the amount of algae-based biofuel.

In the California desert near the Salton Sea and the tiny town of Calipatria, an acre-size rectangular pond is filled with saltwater and brightly colored algae. The pond is one of several at the site where Exxon Mobil and Synthetic Genomics are taking the next step toward a goal that has been elusive for other companies so far: the production of biofuel at scale.

“The goal here is to get to a sustainable, renewable biofuel that can be cost-competitive with pumping oil out of the ground, but can scale to levels that go far beyond demonstration levels,” says Oliver Fetzer, chief executive officer at Synthetic Genomics. “We see this step as a very important step along the way to scalability.”

In 2017, the partners announced–after nine years of research–that they had solved one key challenge for making biofuel from algae. By tweaking a particular gene in a certain species of algae, they were able to make the algae produce twice as much fat as it would in the wild, but still grow as quickly as usual. That fat can be made into fuel.

The team is still working on the basic biology to make algae even more productive, but now putting equal effort into solving engineering challenges to grow and harvest algae efficiently. READ MORE

ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics Algae Biofuels Program Targets 10,000 Barrels Per Day by 2025 (Business Wire)

Exxon sees “line of sight” on algae biofuels (Houston Chronicle)

ExxonMobil, Synthetic Genomics advance algae biofuels program (Biomass Magazine)

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