ExxonMobil Plans $600M Investment in Algae Biofuels

Today, the company announced that its research and engineering branch has entered into a research and development alliance with Synthetic Genomics Inc., a private company founded and led by genome scientist, Dr. J. Craig Venter, to develop advanced biofuels from photosynthetic algae.

If research and development milestones are met, ExxonMobil expects to spend more than $600 million on the algae biofuel project, including $300 million in internal costs and potentially more than $300 million to Synthetic Genomics.

"This investment comes after several years of planning and study and is an important addition to ExxonMobil's ongoing efforts to advance breakthrough technologies to help meet the world's energy challenges," said Dr. Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.

"Meeting the world's growing energy demands will require a multitude of technologies and energy sources," Jacobs said. "We believe that biofuel produced by algae could be a meaningful part of the solution in the future if our efforts result in an economically viable, low net carbon emission transportation fuel."

Experimental algae at the National Renewable Energy Lab (Photo by Jack Dempsey courtesy NREL)

"The real challenge to creating a viable next generation biofuel is the ability to produce it in large volumes which will require significant advances in both science and engineering," said Venter, CEO of Synthetic Genomics.

"The alliance between SGI and ExxonMobil will bring together the complementary capabilities and expertise of both companies to develop innovative solutions that could lead to the large scale production of biofuel from algae," he said.

ExxonMobil's engineering and scientific expertise will be utilized throughout the program, from the development of systems to increase the scale of algae production through the manufacturing of finished fuels.

"While significant work and years of research and development still must be completed, if successful, algae-based fuels could help meet the world's growing demand for transportation fuel while reducing greenhouse gas emissions," said Michael Dolan, senior vice president of ExxonMobil.

"Our new algae biofuels program complements ExxonMobil's ongoing efforts to reduce emissions in our operations and by consumers of our products, through both efficiency improvements and technology breakthroughs," Dolan said.

Dr. Venter is famous for sequencing the human genome using new tools and techniques he and his team developed. The successful completion of this research culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal, "Science."

More than two dozen firms in the United States are already developing algae-based biofuels, including ExxonMobil's competitor Chevron Corp, which is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy at the National Renewable Energy Lab.

The National Algae Association is working with some of these companies to smooth their way to profitable production. "The algae production industry is moving at a fast pace and everyone is sensitive about lowering algae production costs," the NAA says on its website. "Buying power is one of the keys to the success of our industry. NAA is building a Buying Consortium to help its members build algae farms and production plants more cost efficiently."

High oil prices, competing demands for crops between foods and biofuel sources and the world food crisis have ignited interest in algaculture for making vegetable oil, biodiesel, bioethanol, biogasoline, biomethanol, biobutanol and other biofuels.

Algal fuels do not affect fresh water resources, can be produced using ocean and wastewater, and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled.

Jacobs said, "After considerable study, we have determined that the potential advantages and benefits of biofuel from algae could be significant. Among other advantages, readily available sunlight and carbon dioxide used to grow the photosynthetic algae could provide greenhouse gas mitigation benefits."

"Growing algae does not rely on fresh water and arable land otherwise used for food production," said Jacobs, adding, "algae have the potential to produce large volumes of oils that can be processed in existing refineries to manufacture fuels that are compatible with existing transportation technology and infrastructure."

The production of biofuels from algae is believed to help stabilize the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the present level. A team at the University of Virgina is experimenting with feeding the algae more carbon dioxide and organic material to boost the oil yield to as much as 40 percent. If it works, algae could produce biofuel while helping to limit climate change.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles, which is a few thousand square miles larger than Maryland. That calculation assumes a yield of 15,000 gallons per acre. Given a more realistic yield of 3,834 gallons per acre, the area required is roughly equal to that of the state of Georgia.

The advantages of algae are that it can be grown on non-arable land such as deserts or in marine environments, and the potential oil yields are much higher than from plants.

Groups in China, India, Australia, Israel and Spain are already producing biofuels from algae in demonstration facilities.

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.