Algae biofuel pioneers HutanBio secures £2.25m funding

HutanBio, a biotech company founded by scientists from Cambridge University, has secured investment from the Clean Growth Fund to accelerate the commercial use of its HBx biofuel oil and so reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Clean Growth Fund has invested £2.25 million (€2.6 million) to accelerate the company’s commercialisation.
HutanBio, which is based in Cambridge in the UK and in Malaysia, is aiming to secure a significant share of the maritime fuels market over the next decade, mandated by the International Maritime Organisation to reduce CO₂ emissions by at least 40% by 2030.
Designed from the outset as a ready-made drop-in replacement fuel for the global shipping industry, HBx will support these mandates.
HutanBio’s HBx biofuel is a sustainable and scalable high energy density, low carbon, sulphur-free, fuel solution, that uses CO₂ greenhouse gas as a feedstock for algae that are grown in special “bio-reactor farms”.
These farms, designed and engineered by HutanBio and controlled by Artificial Intelligence to optimise yields, will be built on unproductive and non-agricultural semi-arid and arid
land in countries where there are high levels of sunlight.
Drawing on its extensive global cultivation trials and research work undertaken in Malaysia, HutanBio will provide the algae cultures and expert guidance to set up bio-reactor farms around the world.
The biofarms will increase a country’s energy security, provide a major economic stimulus and enhance the local environment. HutanBio will help countries to become green and sustainable powerhouses.
The company is investigating the possibility of its first biofarms to be in Morocco and Australia.