Solazyme signs US Department of Defense contract to develop Navy fuels from algae

9 September 2009

Renewable oil production company Solazyme, Inc. has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense to research, develop, and demonstrate commercial scale production of algae-derived biofuel for the US Navy.

Solazyme will provide renewable F-76 Naval Distillate fuel for testing and fuel certification to demonstrate it meets all military specifications and functional requirements, the company said. F-76 Naval Distillate is similar to diesel fuel and is the primary shipboard fuel used by the Navy.

The contract includes both R&D and fuel delivery components and calls for delivery of over 20,000 gallons of fuel to the Navy for compatibility testing over the next year.

‘The fuels made with our algal technology reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 85 per cent versus standard petroleum based fuels,’ said Jonathan Wolfson, Solazyme’s CEO. ‘We are honoured to be working with the US Navy to develop one of the world’s newest and cleanest fuels.’

‘The Navy, the Defense Energy Support Center, the Defense Logistics Agency and the entire Department of Defense, have taken a true leadership position in moving forward to utilise clean and renewable oil production technology to address both the national energy security needs of our country and the environmental challenges facing our planet,’ Wolfson added.

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

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: biofuel

This story was published on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 9:37 am and is filed under North America, biomass/biofuel, companies. 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.

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