OriginOil

OriginOil, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based algae to oil technology company founded in 2007 to create a technology that will replace petroleum as fuel.
Status Quo: Petroleum as Fuel
Petroleum has fueled the world’s energy needs for the past century. Today, rapid industrialization in once-developing countries such as China and India is dramatically increasing worldwide oil consumption. In 2007, global oil demand rose twice as fast as it had the year before, reaching 36 billion barrels per year and a critical price point of more than $140 per barrel before finally pulling back in late 2008. The Energy Information Association’s predicted global oil demand of 43 billion barrels per year by 2030 may well be reached long before that date.
The world uses a cubic mile of petroleum every single year. As we burn this petroleum, we release it back into our environment, which creates a huge carbon debt. Heavily reliant upon internal combustion engines, the challenge of how to remedy the world’s oil addiction without disrupting our infrastructure is a problem posed to the algae-as-biofuel industry for years.
Unfortunately, oil supplies are decreasing. Producers are now drilling in ever-more-remote, war-torn and environmentally sensitive areas. On the way to running out of oil altogether, the world will experience serious shortages that will cause catastrophic economic dislocation and decades of continued fighting over the last remaining reserves.
In addition to being a fast-depleting resource, oil is a dangerous polluter and a major contributor to global warming when it is burned as a fuel — emitting over 3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere. Not to mention, in the wake of the recent BP oil spill, the threat of immediate damage to the environment hangs heavy in public conscious and only reinforces the horrors of the Exxon oil spill in 1989.
Why Algae
Unlike crop-based feedstocks, algae does not disrupt food or forestry and are more efficient at producing oil. Algae are a biological factory capable of taking carbon dioxide (CO2), a waste product, and converting it into a high-density liquid form of natural oil through photosynthesis. Its potential annual oil yield per acre is at least 20 times that of soybean and at least 10 times that of sunflower, as noted in the Department of Energy's Biofuels Roadmap released June 2010.
The Algae Challenge
OriginOil's Intellectual Property portfolio includes inventions to solve problems that have plagued the algae industry since its inception. For instance, how to "crack" the algae without sacrificing algae counts. Such problem solvers include its Quantum Fracturing and Single-Step Extraction systems.
Recognition
In November 2008, OriginOil was recognized as one of the .
In December 2009, for the second year in a row, OriginOil was recognized as one of the . Other notably listed companies include Solazyme, Sapphire Energy, ExxonMobil and more.
Just recently, the company was named among 2010's .

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