HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will make its first major investment in greenhouse-gas reducing biofuels in a $600 million partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. to develop transportation fuels from algae.
Despite record profit in recent years, the oil and gas giant has been criticized by environmental groups, members of Congress and even shareholders for not spending enough to explore alternative energy options.
One of the company's requirements was finding a biofuel source that could be produced on a large scale. Exxon said photosynthetic algae appears to be a viable, long-term candidate. If the alliance is successful, pumping algae-based gasoline at Exxon service stations is several years away and will mean multibillion-dollar investments for mass production.
"This is not going to be easy, and there are no guarantees of success," said Emil Jacobs, a vice president at Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering Co. "But we're combining Exxon Mobil's technical and financial strength with a leader in bioscientific genomics."
Jacobs said the project involves three critical steps: identifying algae strains that can produce suitable types of oil quickly and at low cost, determining the best way to grow the algae and developing systems to harvest enough for commercial purposes.
Other benefits
Besides the potential for large-scale production, algae has other benefits, Jacobs said. It can be grown using land and water unsuitable for other crop and food production; it consumes carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for climate change, and it can produce an oil with molecular structures similar to the petroleum products -- gasoline, diesel, jet fuel -- Exxon already makes.
That means the Irving, Texas, company will be able to convert the bio-oil into fuels at its own refineries and use existing pipelines and tanker trucks to get it to consumers.
