Renewable oil company Solazyme awarded California Energy Commission grant

5 August 2009

Venture-backed renewable oil production company Solazyme, Inc., has been awarded a $789,697 Biosynthetic Transportation Fuel Production grant from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) programme.

The award will further Solazyme’s research and development of a renewable fuel from cellulosic feedstocks, the company said.

‘This grant will make renewable and fossil-free transportation fuels more readily available and help the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions,’ said Karen Douglas, chairman of the California Energy Commission. ‘The research will also create new fuel production in California, opening up more employment opportunities and economic growth.’

The PIER Program Opportunity Notice (PON) announced that up to $1.65m was available for PIER project funding. Nearly half of those funds were awarded to Solazyme.

‘The development of a sustainable fuel that boosts the economy and creates local jobs while reducing environmental impact is critical to California’s future. We are happy to receive this grant and view it as further validation of Solazyme’s leadership position in the development of clean and renewable advanced biofuels,’ said Jonathan Wolfson, CEO of Solazyme. ‘The California Energy Commission’s demonstrated leadership in driving commercial innovation for a cleaner and more prosperous state is well known and we are pleased to be working with California on such an important project.’

Solazyme has already produced laboratory scale quantities of oil from multiple cellulosic feedstocks, including switchgrass, miscanthus, sugar beet pulp, corn stover and sugarcane bagasse, and has identified a number of algae strains that grow on these types of feedstocks.

The PIER programme supports public interest energy research and development.

Solazyme was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in South San Francisco. Solazyme’s investors include Braemar Energy, Harris & Harris, Lightspeed, Roda Group, and Vantage Point Venture Partners.

The company has raised $76m in funding, including the company’s recently closed $57m Series C financing, in June of this year.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: biofuel, cellulosic ethanol, policy, venture capital

This story was published on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 9:30 am and is filed under North America, biomass/biofuel, deals. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Renewable oil company Solazyme awarded California Energy Commission grant”

1. california energy credits says:

   22 February 2010 at 11:56 am

   With the growth of green initiatives and incentives, renewable energy and pollution control mandates California’s efforts to be at the forefront of this market.

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