Viridos and ExxonMobil to scale-up algae biofuels production

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.

Viridos Inc. (previously Synthetic Genomics) has signed a joint agreement with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company with the intent to bring Viridos’ low-carbon intensity biofuels toward commercial levels.

Figure 1. Viridos and ExxonMobil to scale-up algae biofuels production (taken from the website of the company)

ExxonMobil is continuing this collaboration with Viridos to bring sustainable algae biofuels technology closer to commercial deployment. The recent productivity advances in Viridos’ technology are an opportunity to turn CO2 into renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuels. In this next phase of the program, they intend to broaden participation and invite others to build the ecosystem required for full-scale deployment.

With the support of ExxonMobil, Viridos developed the California Advanced Algal Facility (CAAF) in the Imperial Desert in 2018 as the initial pilot facility to test and farm optimal algae strains to move us toward commercialization. In the past few years, Viridos has achieved greater than 5x oil productivity growth by increasing both the oil content in the algae and the algae yield. The results from outdoor trials of Viridos’ bio-engineered strains in 2020 and 2021 mark the inflection point toward commercial deployment.

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