Technology

Solazyme’s renewable oil production technology allows us to do in a matter of days what it took nature millions of years to do.

Our unique, indirect photosynthesis bioproduction process uses microalgae to convert biomass directly into oil and other biomaterials, a process that can be performed in standard commercial fermentation facilities cleanly, quickly, and at low cost and large scale. Our renewable oil and bioproducts technology has manufactured thousands of gallons of oil and hundreds of tons of biomaterials that are tailored not only for biofuel production, but also as replacements for fossil petroleum and plant oils and compounds in a diverse range of products from oleochemicals to cosmetics and foods.

Billions of years of evolution have equipped algae with the capacity to produce oil by feeding on a wide variety of biomass. Solazyme’s technology is feedstock agnostic, which allows commercial scale production plants to be placed worldwide, adjacent to many non-food biomass sources and waste streams.

The long-term prospects for renewable oil production are excellent; businesses, environmental groups, policymakers and the public at large understand that there are larger and greater environmental and energy security needs driving the imperative for alternative sources of clean, domestically produced, high-quality oils.

Solazyme has produced a variety of renewable algal oil and materials based products including:

• biodiesel that meets ASTM D6751, EN 14214, and U.S. Military specifications
• renewable diesel that meets ASTM D975
• renewable jet fuel that meets all 11 key tested criteria for ASTM D1655 (Jet-A1)
• highly nutritious edible oils, flours, and powders
• various oleochemicals
• various consumer products including cosmetic and nutraceutical bioactives