I wrote last month of a California start up doing genetic modification to single cell organisms which, once modified, would produce a petroleum oil like chemical that could be refined into fuels for automobiles. The researches claim the resultant fuel is carbon neutral, could be manufactured for a fraction of crude oil pricing and is interchangeable with petroleum based fuels (eliminating transition costs). The Guardian UK has a followup article and identifies the start up doing the research:
Sapphire
Energy has raised a total of $50m (£25m) in venture capital in recent
weeks, the highest amount ever for an algae biotech company, including
a significant investment from the UK's Wellcome Trust.
Algae are seen by many experts as promising a source of green fuel in
the future: ranging from single-celled organisms to large seaweeds,
they are the world's most abundant form of plant life and, via
photosynthesis, are extremely efficient at using sunlight and carbon
dioxide from the air to make organic material such as sugars, proteins
and, under the right conditions, oils.
The
money for Sapphire came flooding in after the company recently reached
its most significant milestone yet, refining high-octane gasoline from
their green crude. "The resulting gasoline is completely compatible
with current infrastructure, meaning absolutely no change to consumer's
cars," said a Sapphire spokesperson.
An
added advantage is that their gasoline does not have contaminants such
as sulphur, nitrogen and benzene that are contained in standard crude
oil and the company believes the cost of their fuels will be comparable
to standard fossil fuels on the market.
Sapphire
said it expects to be at a stage of commercial production of green
crude within three to five years. Geoffrey Love, head of venture
capital at the Wellcome Trust, said the investment was made with this
in mind. "There was already in place a very strong scientific and
management team.
"They'd already made milestone-based progress to proving they could
make not just biodiesel, which plenty of other companies out there can
do, but proper crude oil."
Necessity is the mother of invention and there's some very, very, very valuable intellectual property to be gained here. There is, no doubt, a lot of very smart, very motivated people working on alternative solutions to the gasoline crisis. Best of luck to them all.
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