Jul 19 2010
ExxonMobil Corporation, an international oil and gas company, and Synthetic Genomics Inc, engaged in developing and commercializing genomic-driven solutions, has jointly announced the inauguration of a greenhouse facility to facilitate the next level of research and trials for their algae biofuels program.
The new facility currently installed at SGI headquarters in La Jolla, CA, offers improved virtual conditions for algae productions. This facility will be used by the researchers from SGI and ExxonMobil to uncover the feasibility of manufacturing large quantity of fuel at affordable cost from algae.
The newly developed greenhouse facility will allow the researchers to observe various growth systems for algae products such as closed photo-bio-reactors and open ponds. In the process they will try to evaluate the algae, utilizing engineered strains as well as natural algae. The test is expected to be performed under varying temperatures, light conditions and using different nutrient concentrations. The research process also includes other features of algae fuel development procedures which includes harvest and bio-oil revival process.
Since the inception of the program the researchers has achieved considerable progress in the areas such as isolating a good number of prospective algal strains in simulated growth conditions for effective growth of the strains. Discovering and testing the favored design features of various production systems and inducting studies on the life cycle and sustainability to check the impact of each step in the process on greenhouse gas discharges.
ExxonMobil’s vice president of R&D Dr. Emil Jacobs considers the opening of greenhouse as important and so is the development of algae biofuels for commercial use as it will make a worthy contribution to meet the energy demand in the coming years.
Founder and CEO for SGI Dr. J. Craig Venter called the implementation of greenhouse as an important step in their coalition with ExxonMobils for exploring algae as biofuel source.