Singapore company Eves Energy is set to build a microalgae oil plant in Indonesia this year, The Straits Times reported.
The facility would be located on Indonesia’s Seram Island, Eves Energy CEO and president Lanz Chan was quoted as saying.
Eves Energy would produce algae oil at the site using a process developed by scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, Chemical Engineering wrote on 1 December.
As part of the collaboration Eves Energy would produce 1.2M tonnes of microalgae oil and 1.2M tonnes of algae cake by the end of 2026, The Straits Times wrote.
Producing the oil involved adding pyruvic acid – an organic acid that occurs in all living cells – to a culture medium solution with the alga, Chromochloris zofingiensis, which was then exposed to ultraviolet light to stimulate photosynthesis, the 21 October report said.
The method was developed by a team led by Prof William Chen, the director of NTU’s Food Science and Technology Programme, and announced in March 2022.
A consultant on the project, Prof Chen said NTU’s oil extraction method would be licensed to Eves Energy.
Algae oil produced could be used in food applications and the extracted oil could also be used as a feedstock in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Eve Energy’s Dr Chan said.
Dr Chan estimated that the crude algae oil and the dry algae cake could be sold at US$600 (S$824)/tonne and, once the facility was operational, Eves Energy estimated a profit of US$1bn/year.
