San Diego-based Sapphire Energy announced it is producing renewable gasoline from a process that begins with algae.
The company said its process uses sunlight, carbon dioxide and photosynthetic microorganisms to produce 91-octane gasoline that is entirely compatible with the current energy infrastructure from cars to refineries and pipelines.
Because the fuel is made from carbon dioxide capture from burning other fuel sources, it adds no new CO2 to the atmosphere. Therefore it is considered "carbon neutral."
The fuel is not biodiesel and not ethanol, the company notes, and no crops or farm land are required. The hydrocarbons in the fuel are chemically identical to those in gasoline.
CEO and co-founder Jason Pyle said, "Our goal is to produce a renewable fuel without the downsides of current biofuel approaches."
"It’s hard not to get excited about algae’s potential," said Paul Dickerson, chief operating officer of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy "Its basic requirements are few: CO2, sun, and water. Algae can flourish in non-arable land or in dirty water, and when it does flourish, its potential oil yield per acre is unmatched by any other terrestrial feedstock."
Sapphire’s scalable production facilities can grow easily and economically because production is modular, transportable, and fueled by sunlight–not constrained by land, crops, or other natural resources, according to a company release.
"Any company or fuel that hopes to solve the biofuel conundrum must be economically scalable — and that requires conforming to the existing refining distribution and fleet infrastructure," said Brian Goodall, Sapphire’s new vice president of downstream technology.
Goodall led the team responsible for the highly visible, first-ever Virgin Atlantic "green" 747 flight earlier this year. In addition to a three-decade career in the petrochemical industry, he is a corporate inductee at the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
About Sapphire Energy
Sapphire Energy was founded to address the overwhelming inadequacies of current biofuel approaches and the profound costs of American dependence on foreign oil. The company has built a platform using sunlight, CO2 and microorganisms such as algae to produce renewable, 91 octane gasoline that meets ASTM standards; it is not ethanol and not biodiesel.
Sapphire is led by an interdisciplinary team of entrepreneurs and experts in cell biology, plant genomics and algal production, as well as investors with long histories of taking innovative technology to market, including co-founder ARCH Venture Partners, along with the Wellcome Trust and Venrock. Sapphire’s scientific supporters include Scripps Research Institute; University of California, San Diego; the University of Tulsa, and the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Project. The company is located in San Diego.
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