Biocatalysis

Solazyme, which until now has positioned itself as a producer of biofuels from algae, has just announced a shift in focus to produce food oils. The company believes it can have products on the market in 2010.  According to chief technology officer Harrison Dillon, the decision to diversify into food products came about by almost by accident when scientists at the company discovered their algae could excrete oils that were similar to olive oil. Olive oil has a market price about 25 times higher than fuel; I’ll bet that also played a role in the decision.

Biofuels Digest has released its new rankings of biofuels companies. Here are the top 10, many of which have been profiled here in the past:

1 Solazyme,2 Poet, 3 Amyris, 4 BP Biofuels, 5 Sapphire Energy, 6 Coskata, 7 DuPont Danisco, 8 LS9, 9 Verenium, 10 Mascoma.

There were a few new names on the list: BP Biofuels was unranked last year and showed up at number 4 this year. Other newbies were further down the list.  Algae companies were strong this year, along with companies showing ability to scale up production for ethanol. We will take a closer look at some of these players in upcoming posts.