Exxon and Craig Venter Join Forces to Develop Algae-Based Fuels

Oil giant Exxon Mobil announced it was joining in a partnership with Dr. Craig Venter’s biotechnology firm Synthetic Genomics and investing $600 million to produce transportation fuels from algae.

Emil Jacobs, vice president for research and development at Exxon’s research and engineering unit, told the New York Times that scale was of paramount concern in the company’s evaluation of which alternative fuels technology to pursue.

He also predicted that commercial-scale production of algae-based fuel was between five and ten years away.

The investment represents $300 million for in-house studies, and at least $300 to Synthetic Genomics, depending on whether R&D milestones “are successfully met.”

Congress has mandated that biofuels production reach 36 billion gallons by 2022.

At the moment, most of the biofuel produced in the U.S. is corn-based ethanol. Exxon’s figures indicate that an acre of algae could produce more than 2,000 gallons of fuel per year—compared with corn’s yield of only 250 gallons per year.

Fuel derived from algae resembles petroleum-based fuel on a molecular level, making it suitable for integration into existing transportation infrastructure and technology. Additionally, as it can be farmed in areas not suitable for producing food crops, it doesn’t pose the same threat to global food supplies as would other biofuels stock.

Synthetic Genomics was founded by Venter in 2002 for the purpose of using modified microorganisms to produce clean fuels and biochemicals.  Venter first came to fame when he ran a parallel, commercial version of the Human Genome Project to sequence human DNA. 

Venter’s commercial concept was to create a database of genomic data that users could subscribe to for a fee. This concept proved unpopular in the genetics community and spurred several groups to successfully redouble their efforts to produce the full sequence and release it as open access.  

Dr. Venter said the participation of industry leaders like Exxon was critical to developing alternative fuels on a large scale.

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