A Bloom in Biofuels

The same organisms that created the oil and gas now powering our industrial society and warming the globe can also be used to make carbon-neutral fuels.

The fossil fuels of today largely came from the aquatic single-celled photosynthesizers of yesterday: Nourished by sunlight and high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, these microalgae formed vast colonies on the surface of Earth’s ancient oceans, and when they died, they sank to the seafloor, building up in thick layers that gradually decomposed to form hydrocarbons like petroleum and natural gas.

Algae may have been the source of the oil we’re addicted to, but they could also help wean us off it by acting as a feedstock for biofuels. Most existing biofuel feedstocks, like those used to make ethanol or biodiesel, rely on the sugars, starches, or oils from the energy-intensive farming of food crops. Algae, by comparison, do not require land or clean water to grow. They flourish anywhere there is water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide, and can yield much more energy-per-acre than most other biofuel crops. In addition, algae can be engineered to secrete biofuels, which can be siphoned off without damaging the organisms themselves.

In a watershed July 14 announcement, Exxon Mobil, the largest non-state-owned oil company in the world, declared it was pouring up to $600 million over the next five to six years into the development of algae-based biofuels. At least $300 million is going to Exxon Mobil’s collaboration with Synthetic Genomics, a company founded by the molecular biologist Craig Venter. Synthetic Genomics plans to use genetically modified (GM) microalgae to produce a variety of biofuels and may even tweak some organisms to directly produce hydrocarbons, which can then be refined into gasoline, jet fuel, and other products. The oil giant’s task in this is to develop a refining and distribution infrastructure that can lift the production of algal biofuels to high-volume, commercially sustainable levels.

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Tags: atmospheric carbon dioxide, craig venter, exxon mobil, feedstock, food crops, hydrocarbons, Innovation, microalgae, molecular biologist, oil giant, synthetic genomics

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Innovation, Project Energy, Seed Magazine, environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.