Synthetic Genomics: 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profile
Based in: California
2008-09 rank: 19
Business: Synthetic biology and algal fuel developer.
Model: R&D partner
Past milestones:
ExxonMobil, the last of the oil majors to commit to a major investment in biofuels, announced that its Research and Engineering unit will invest $300 million into in-house algae research, and up to an additional $300 million in La Jolla-based Synthetic Genomics, the genetics firm founded by J. Craig Venter that has been working on algae-to-energy research since 2005.
SGI has developed techniques for harvesting algal oils, and will focus research on increasing lipid content by manipulating algal strains. The ExxonMobil investment in SGI is contingent on the meeting of R&D goals, according to a report in the New York Times.
“This agreement between SGI and EMRE represents a comprehensive, long-term research and development exploration,” said Venter. “We are confident that the combination of our respective expertise in science, research, engineering and scale-up should unlock the power of algae as biological energy producers in methods and scale not previously explored.”
“After considerable study, we have determined that the potential advantages and benefits of biofuel from algae could be significant,” said Emil Jacobs, EMRE’s VP of R&D.
The venture is presented as a research collaboration rather than a commercialization effort at his stage, and could be classified to some extent opposite a $500 million investment made in 2007 by BP in the Energy Bioscience Institute. Chevron has also previously partnered with Solazyme and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on research efforts in the algae-to-energy field. But for sheer magnitude of investment, the focus on a single bioenergy feedstock, and the focus on a single R&D partner in Synthetic Genomics, the announcement is without parallel in biofuels history.
It may not be possible to interpret this investment as, in itself, a new and imminent path towards algal fuel commercialization, but it can be regarded as confirmation that ExxonMobil, after a famously long delay, has entered the renewable energy arena, and is placing its bet on algae.
What does this bode for other high-profile algae-to-energy companies?
“We think it’s good for algae, and good for us,” said Tim Zenk, VP of Corporate Affairs for Sapphire Energy. “The research collaboration announced today sends a loud and clear message that drop-in-replacement liquid transportation fuel produced from algae, above all other biologic choices, is the most viable option to replace crude oil. Algae fuels have significant environmental benefits over crude oil with lower carbon emissions, and are scalable to help nations transition to a secure energy future.”
Algae 2020 author Will Thurmond was similarly bullish. “Exxon-Mobil’s $600 million dollar commitment to algae based bio-crude and biofuels,” Thurmond said, “represents another affirmative commitment by major petroleum companies, research laboratories, private investors and governments that are looking beyond the research and development phase, and are now entering the next stage to scale up and build out industrial-scale systems based on innovative, emerging and disruptive technologies.”
Future milestones:
In California, a report on Craig Venter in Discover focuses on the Syntehtic Genomics founder’s ambitions to develop synthetic life forms. While researchers have succeeded in “stitching together pieces of synthesized DNA” and transplanting that to a host bacterium; but the bacterium has been rejecting the genome as an invader, until recent efforts to add methyl tags to M. mycoides allowed the genome to go unnoticed by the bacterial defense system.
The prize? Energy microbes that become monocellular biorefineries, consuming waste energy and converting it to biofuels. It is unclear whether the Synthetic Genomics research effort with ExxonMobil in algae will directly benefit from the R&D effort, as algae is a much more highly complex organism than bacteria. But Venter told the Times, “Assuming we don’t make any errors, I think it should work and we should have the first synthetic species by the end of the year.”
Metrics:
$300 million commitment to SGI is reportedly on a milestone-based, stage-gate basis.
The Hot 50 for 2009-10 will be released Tuesday, 12/1. Between now and then, you’ll see profiles of potential candidates in the Digest, and you’ll have a chance to vote for your favorites. Reader response will count for 50 percent of a company’s overall score in the preparation of the rankings. The remaining 50 percent is voted by a panel of experts.
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