BP Taps ASU for Biofuel Research

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TEMPE -- BP is tapping yet another university to help it on its quest of developing cost-effective ways of transforming low-carbon feedstocks into biofuel.

BP, Arizona State University and Science Foundation Arizona will work together for a biofuel research venture as the energy giant seeks to expand its renewable energy portfolio.

The two groups will look specifically at optimized photosynthetic bacterium to produce an alternative to oil. Large-scale microbial cultivation that uses only solar energy in an environmentally controlled production facility is promising because it could be set up on arid land, BP said.

And this particular renewable is made more attractive by its high biomass-to-fuel yield and its potentially tiny — or even nonexistent — carbon footprint made possible by the bacteria's dependence on carbon dioxide for growth.

BP said such a facility could be located next to power generating stations using a flue gas for the carbon source.

"We will be pursuing two coordinated, parallel tracks in which we will both optimize the metabolic processes involved in the production of the high-energy biofuel and engineer a photobioreactor to make the process efficient and cost-effective," said Bruce Rittman, an ASU professor who will help lead the research.

BP formed its biofuel business in 2006, the same year it established the Energy Biosciences Institute. The $500 million research program involves the University of California, Berkeley, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

In September, BP became a founding member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative.

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