Algae Fuels Developer Solazyme Raises $52 Million to Help Boost Production
By John O'Dell August 9, 2010
It may be slimy stuff, but its beautiful to some - enough so that South San Francisco-based Solazyme's tanks of fermenting algae attracted $52 million in private investment recently, money the company says it will use to help scale up production of the fuels and chemicals it can make from the stuff.
Solazyme, which has a research and development deal with Chevron Corp., last year got almost $22 million from the federal Energy Department to build an algae biofuels refinery in Pennsylvania, It also has a supply contract with the Defense Department and last month, delivered 1,500 gallons of algae-based jet fuel to the U.S. Navy.
It has hopes of producing as much as 100,000 gallons of biodiesel this year.
The company is one of several pursuing algal fuels, but instead of growing vast amounts of algae out in the sun and then squeezing the oil out of it, as its competitor do, Solazyme uses algae to covert the plant sugars in biomass such as switchgrass into fats and oils that can be further processed into biofuels and used for soap and other products.
Solazyme said that its latest financing round was led by Braemar Energy Ventures - an existing investor - and Morgan Stanley, a new backer.
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My reservations on biofuels are due not only to land and water use, but more vitally their use of phosphates, which are a limited resource in rich ore bodies and is essential to all life, and in particular the food we eat:
'Our supply of mined phosphorus is running out. Many mines used to meet this growing demand are degrading, as they are increasingly forced to access deeper layers and extract a lower quality of phosphate-bearing rock (phosphate is the chemical form in which nearly all phosphorus is found). Some initial analyses from scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative estimate that there will not be sufficient phosphorus supplies from mining to meet agricultural demand within 30 to 40 years. Although more research is clearly needed, this is not a comforting time scale.
The geographic concentration of phosphate mines also threatens to usher in an era of intense resource competition. Nearly 90 percent of the world's estimated phosphorus reserves are found in five countries: Morocco, China, South Africa, Jordan, and the United States. In comparison, the 12 countries that make up the OPEC cartel control only 75 percent of the world's oil reserves. '
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/20/peak_phosphorus?page=0,0
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