japantimes | The future of Japan’s biofuel industry may be pond scum. Or more
specifically, green algae that’s swirling around in tanks on a tropical
Okinawan island.
That’s what Mitsuru Izumo and his company Euglena Co. are counting on
anyway. After 10 years developing the algae as a nutritional supplement
that feeds the company’s ¥4.6 billion in annual revenue, Euglena has
been teaming up with corporate giants including All Nippon Airways and a
unit of Chevron Corp. for its next phase.
Excited investors have driven up the shares more than 2,400 percent
since its 2012 initial public offering, the best performance of any IPO
that year or since.
“I’m very confident we’ll commercialize bio-jet fuel by 2020,” said
Izumo, 35, in an interview at his Tokyo office, while sporting one of
his four luminous-green ties meant to evoke the color of the aquatic
microorganisms. “We expect the biofuel business to overtake health food,
but we don’t know yet if this will be in 2025 or 2030. We’re still in
the R&D stage.”
At the Euglena factory on the island of Ishigaki, one of the
southernmost in the Okinawan chain, the bright sunshine bathing the half
dozen freshwater tanks is creating photosynthesis. It’s the energy that
provides euglena’s nutrition as well as its oil that may someday propel
jets.
Seiya Takeda, a researcher there, checks the tanks daily, making sure
that moving metal arms constantly churn through the water. That keeps
air flowing to the organisms, speeding growth.
