15th July, 2010
A new greenhouse facility has been opened in California with the aim of enabling the next level of research and testing of an algae biofuels programme.
ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics are behind the facility in La Jolla, CA, which was opened yesterday and moves the project from a laboratory setting to an environment that founder and CEO Dr Craig Venter described as a “halfway house” where researchers can test whether developments from the lab bench can function in a larger, contained environment.
According to Dr Emil Jacobs, the vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, the vision is to produce a new source of oil from algae that can be processed and delivered through existing distribution systems.
The greenhouse will be used to examine different growth systems including open ponds and closed photo-bioreactors. Both natural and engineered strains of algae will be examined and research will also be carried out into other aspects of the algae fuel production process.
It is expected that the next major milestone in the programme will be the opening of an outdoor test facility in mid-2011. Exxon expects to spend more than $600million on the algae biofuels programme over the next decade.
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