Algenol acquires Cyano biofuels to boost their algae technology

Algenol, an algal biotechnology company recently named as a market leader by Lux research, has acquired Germany-based Cyano Biofuels, a spin out company from the Institute of Biology at Humboldt University.

Algenol co-founder and CEO, Paul Woods;

"Combining our companies will accelerate our ability to fully develop Algenol's DIRECT TO ETHANOL® technology and move us more rapidly toward commercialization. The Berlin area is well known for its world-class research on microalgae and is a perfect place to hire talented scientists and technicians. We plan to continue Cyano Biofuels' collaborations with German universities and believe these collaborations will add significant new technology and new capabilities to our Company."

Algenol specialize in producing ethanol fuel and biobased chemicals from hybrid algae, which can theoretically produce high yields of product more easily than from other feedstocks. Algae can also be grown using only carbon dioxide, water and sunlight. They have recently built new labs in Florida and have plans to begin construction of a pilot scale biorefinery in 2011. The blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) used in their DIRECT TO ETHANOL process are grown in aquaculture as opposed to on agricultural or marginal land as many other biofuel feedstocks are. 

Algenol has access to a wide variety of algae strains. Cyano is an R&D company which specializes in algal biology. The two companies have been working together for several years. After partnering with Algenol in 2010 and holding a minority stake in the company, it was announced that Cyano had been acquired by the company in March 2011. This move will significantly boost Algenol’s R&D capabilities and algae portfolio and also give the company access to more European expertise in the algal biology field as Cyano is closely linked to a number of German universities. This acquisition forms part of Algenol’s efforts to move the company from the development to a fully commercial company.

This acquisition reflects the stage of development at which the algal biotechnology industry is at; many start ups are still at the development stage, however these companies are trying to move forward to commercialization. The difficulty for algal biofuel is the amount of new technology development that needs to be done; as well as developing the pre-processing and conversion steps of the process, algae production methods have to be developed as well. Solazyme is one of the projects that have moved past the development stage, filling large orders from the US military for algal biofuel. A number of other companies are active in algal biotechnology, researching the possibilities for producing chemicals and pharmaceuticals from algae rather than using conventional chemistry or from other microorganisms. Some of these companies are edging closer to commercialization as well.