Super Eco

Photo credit: higetiger, Flickr

"Pond scum": it's not just an insult anymore. In fact, it may be the fuel source for the biofuel generation. Solazyme first demonstrated its biodiesel fuel by powering a Mercedes around the Sundance Film Festival last year. The South San Francisco start-up has scored a couple of impressive "firsts." They produced the world's first algal based biodiesel and the first algal derived synthetic jet fuel. In 2008, Solazyme announced a biodiesel feedstock development and testing agreement with Chevron Technology Ventures which they hope will lead to production of their fuels in commercial volumes.

The Solazyme biofuel strategy is to produce transportation fuels that are compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure. The biofuels they've announced meet the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards for jet fuel and for diesel. Solazyme uses what they call "screening-based directed evolution technologies." That's a mouthful that means the company's strength is in genetic engineering, the ability to force and select strains of algae that produce oil. They genetically modify algae to consume common biomass feedstocks, like switchgrass, sawdust, or even glycerol waste from chemical plants; then they ferment it to get it to grow as fast as possible. If the algae consume more feedstock than they can use, they produce oil as a way to store the excess energy. Fat algae! That algae fat can be refined into biofuels or made into other products from cosmetics to power nutrition bars.

The company forces evolution of algae strains that meet market needs for all kinds of other specialized ingredients. Besides fuel, they are aiming at the cosmetic, nutrition and pharmaceutical markets. (Marketing advice from me... stay away from the soylent green nutrition space. I'm just saying.)