Now, Solazyme has become the world\u2019s first billion-dollar algae fuel maker with a whooping 15% increase in its issue price on its stock market debut.<\/p>\n
The company is also under development agreement with Quantas to pursue a potential algae-based jet fuel. It is noteworthy to mention that though the algae based fuel developing technologies are still under infancy, investors still see it as a potential domain.<\/p>\n
With a price of $18 per share, above the price range that was previously estimated, the company is to raise around $198 million when it debuts on the Nasdaq. The company had set an estimated maximum offering of $184 million just last week, smart of them to play it low, the current pricing tops it.<\/p>\n
The billion dollar oil and fuel maker is interested in the multi-dimensional use of algae in sectors like fuel oil, dietary supplements and skin care products.<\/p>\n
CEO Jonathon Wolfson announced on Friday that while crude oil prices were rising inexorably, Solayme was hoping to be able to sell diesel fuel for $US4 per gallon or less. He also noted that Solazyme differs considerably from other algae developers, in that it proposes to use sugar-based feedstocks to help genetically-modified algae in fermentation tanks without sunlight. While, other algae producers rely on algae that grow with sunlight and which uses carbon dioxide as the principal feedstock.<\/p>\n
Talking about algae fuels, the value of renewable fuels from algae is projected to reach $1.3 billion by 2020, considering the number of projects under planning. Though researchers note that algae fuel use will be driven by strong demand from aviation and military consumers, technological breakthroughs in the production, cultivation, and extraction of algae oil, and the development of large-scale projects, the high costs associated with producing crude algae fuel has pushed most industry ventures away from a fuels-first approach to focus on the development of revenue streams from high-value, low-volume co-product markets, such as pharmaceuticals and feedstocks. This is predicted to bring about the scaling-up of algae facilities in the immediate future.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/05\/27\/idUS108456336620110527<\/a><\/p>\n