Business Times - 17 Nov 2010

Researchers fired up by algae that converts CO2 into fuel

By S JAYASANKARAN

(Kuala Lumpur)

SCIENTISTS in Australia have made a breakthrough discovery that could potentially jumpstart the greening of the globe.

Over a year ago, researchers in Adelaide's Flinders University led by Andy Ball, an environmental biotechnologist, identified a gene in a rare strain of algae that can convert carbon dioxide into high-grade fuel. The researchers were funded by WWCC Limited, a private equity firm incorporated in Hong Kong.

'Actually we've been bursting to tell the world,' said Mark Bayoud, a spokesman for WWCC. 'But we had to wait until we got the global patent rights for Prof Ball's discovery.' Currently, patents for the discovery covering 150 countries have been lodged with WWCC.

'Bench tests at Flinders have shown that the breakthrough is commercially viable,' WWCC's Steven Hanson told BT in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. 'Now, we intend to spend US$50 million over the next five years to prove it. We expect milestones along the way like, say, in the first year we commercially produce squalene (used to make moisturisers and immunological vaccines) and, say, petrol in the second year and so on.'

Mr Hanson declined to reveal how much WWCC had poured into Prof Ball's research but said that it would ultimately list the company in both the West (probably the US) and in Asia (probably in Singapore).

The potential environmental significance of the discovery cannot be overemphasised. 'We have found out that one tonne of oil produced by the algae absorbs five tonnes of carbon dioxide and releases 3.5 tonnes of oxygen,' said Mr Hanson who holds a doctorate in chemistry.

If it is commercially feasible, Prof Ball's discovery could do for global warming what Jonas Salk did to poliomyelitis. As a possible solution to the world's fossil fuel crisis, it could bring incalculable profits to WWCC and position Prof Ball and his team to science's highest distinctions.

Man has known for years that algae can produce fuel. In fact, they produce 15 times more oil per acre than any comparable biofuel crop. In addition, they reproduce much faster than any other plant.

But most research focused on a type of algae broadly classified as Race A because it was easily available. But the organism only produced low grade lipid (an oily compound that includes fats and waxes).

In the 1980s, however, a Prof Pierre Metzger of France became convinced that the answer lay in Race B algae which could produce high grade fuel but was not easily available. He amassed large quantities of the organism but could not progress in genotyping the algae because of the lack of technology at the time.

On hearing that Prof Ball was interested in furthering his work, 'Prof Metzger donated his entire stock of Race B algae to us and didn't ask us for a single cent', said Mr Hanson. Prof Ball assembled a team of scientists - 'including a genius at algorithms' - and set about cracking the organism's genetic code.

The team have since isolated the gene that encodes an enzyme capable of producing triterpenoids, a high-grade hydrocarbon class. More significantly, the gene can express itself - make its host produce oil - in any medium be it bacteria such as the humble E Coli (found in faeces) or Race A algae.

The focus of current research is to establish the optimal environmentally safe conditions to produce the greatest amount of oil.

The algae produces oil when it is starved of light, carbon dioxide or nutrients but also reproduces slowly under these conditions - which is why current research is headed that way.

'Think about it,' enthused Mr Hanson. 'There are 50,000 power plants in the world that produce 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Theoretically, this amount of CO2 can produce two billion tonnes of gene-inspired fuel and release seven billion tonnes of oxygen. By the way, the annual global demand for oil is slightly over four billion tonnes.'

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