Playing the Long Game: ExxonMobil Gambles on Algae Biofuel

by Carly Nairn (Mongabay) - Algae biofuel initially looked promising, but a few key problems have thwarted major research efforts, including development of a strain of algae able to produce plentiful cheap fuel, and scaling up to meet global energy demand.
- Other alternative energy solutions, including wind and solar power, are outpacing algae biofuel advances.
- Much more investment in money and time is needed for algae biofuel to become viable, even on an extended timeline out to mid-century. While big players like Shell and Chevron have abandoned the effort, ExxonMobil continues work.
- In 2017, ExxonMobil, with Synthetic Genomics, announced they had used CRISPR gene-editing technology to make an algal strain that could pave the way to a low-carbon fuel and a sustainable future. But many environmentalists met the claim with skepticism, suspecting greenwashing.

What are algae and algae biofuels?

“What are algae?” proves to be a surprisingly complex question. They are among the simplest organic producers in the world, using light and carbon dioxide to make biomass. Green algae, for example, use photosynthesis to grow. But algae aren’t only classed as plants. Rather, they’re a highly varied and genetically diverse group of organisms hailing from across four biological kingdoms: Bacteria, Chromista, Plantae, and Protozoa.

Latest research estimates that there are anywhere between 30,000 and 1 million algae species on Earth, with diversity that astounds, ranging from microscopic diatoms (single-celled marine organisms that produce more than 20% of the world’s oxygen), to giant sea kelp (reaching heights of 100 feet, or 30 meters). Algae contain the building blocks of all organic life: proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and nucleic acids — with lipids especially and potentially useful in energy production

Making algae into biofuel starts in a lab, where each strain is tested and then modified genetically to grow faster and be richer in lipids, the non-water-soluble fatty acids that produce algae oil, the essential ingredient of the hoped-for liquid biofuel. According to recent research by the Indian Institute of Technology, microalgae can contain 15 to 77% oil, making it an attractive candidate for biodiesel.

But creating the perfect microalgae would be just the first step. Then researchers needed to harvest the algae, break down the cell walls with chemical solvents, then extract the inner lipids, proteins and carbs, which undergo a final processing step to convert them into biofuel. Then, of course, there was the need to scale up the entire process, growing the microalgae at an industrial scale in vast outdoor pools requiring huge amounts of land and tremendous quantities of fresh or salt water.

This daunting complexity explains why the algae biofuel industry today continues to be a specialized and very expensive game, only played by those who can afford and tolerate high risk.

However, the U.S. government has also played a major part in funding projects and partnering with private organizations in the quest to find the ultimate algae strain (or several together) that will compete successfully on a cost-effective level with fossil fuels.

Companies including Algenol and TerraVia Holdings (formerly Solazyme) that initially invested heavily in algae biofuel in the first decade of the aughts pivoted away from the search several years ago, instead producing algae-based consumer goods. Some, like Sapphire Energy, despite the pivot, folded.

Once a good strain is found in one lab, it is shared and tested nationally with DISCOVR, a consortium of laboratories dedicated to testing algae for fuel.

Critics particularly wonder whether the fossil fuel giant (known for its long-running climate disinformation campaigns) may be more interested in the PR and greenwashing opportunities offered by being associated with the alternative biofuel technology.

Ever since the 2017 CRISPR announcement, ExxonMobil has used social media — including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — to share its “Miniature Science” campaign, claiming that microalgae could “fuel the trucks, ships and planes of tomorrow,” while taking CO₂ out of the environment, according to a critique by Joseph Winters, published in the Harvard Political Review.

Analysts point out that algae biomass, whether used as fuel, a food or drink supplement — all algae, everywhere, in fact — will indeed take CO₂ out of the environment. But critically, everything depends on scale. Current algae biofuel cultivation capabilities cannot even remotely offset the massive amounts of carbon that ExxonMobil’s nonrenewable fuels pump into the atmosphere annually — the company’s net greenhouse gas releases totaled approximately 120 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in 2019.

The company (Synthetic Gemomics) went outdoors two years ago, and its pond-grown strains are showing promise of keeping the company’s and ExxonMobil’s goal of producing 10,000 barrels per day of algae fuel by 2025. According to its latest report, ExxonMobil’s current daily output includes 4 million barrels of oil and natural gas.