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HutanBio wins £2.25m to fast-track biofuels supply to global shipping and aviation industries.
Cambridge has given birth to an exciting biotech company blazing a global trail with game-changing biofuels technology.
After a decade of research and development in the UK and around the world, HutanBio – founded by scientists from Cambridge University and based in Cambridge as well as Malaysia – has secured £2.25 million investment from Clean Growth Fund to fast-track biofuels supply to global shipping & aviation industries.
The CleanTech venture capital fund is backing the business to accelerate the commercial use of its HBx bio-fuel oil and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
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HutanBio aims to secure a significant share of the maritime fuels market over the next decade, mandated by the International Maritime Organisation to reduce CO? emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2030 and stop using fossil fuels by 2050.
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 bio-oil is a sustainable and scalable high energy density, low carbon, sulphur-free fuel solution that uses CO? greenhouse gas as a feedstock for algae 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 company says the biofarms will increase a country’s energy security, provide a major economic stimulus and enhance the local environment. HutanBio is dedicated to helping countries become green and sustainable
powerhouses. It is investigating the possibility of its first biofarms to be in Morocco and Australia.
Given the need for CO? as a feedstock for its algae, HutanBio expects to locate some of its bio-reactor farms on land adjacent to high CO?-emitting heavy industries.
HutanBio offers these industries, for example the cement industry, with a ready-made and circular carbon capture and use solution whilst allowing the HBx biofuel to be used in their operations.
The company’s project development approach is through modular expansion to suit market demands, helping to build supplies of HBx in a manageable and sustainable way.
Through the development of its HBx fuel oil via 10 years of research and a trillion samples screened in the world’s largest ever marine microalgae bioprospecting programme – HutanBio has addressed a series of social and environmental challenges that many other biofuels face.
HBx’s production does not use any fresh water and has been optimised to thrive in brackish to very salty environments; it avoids competition with agriculture and does not drive deforestation or peatland destruction. And unlike current biofuels from terrestrial oil-crops, it does not compete for food resources. It can bring life to barren desert landscapes and add to the planet’s photosynthesis.
It can also scale in semi-arid and arid areas to remove millions of tonnes of CO?, cleanly and safely from the earth’s atmosphere, the company says.
The science behind HutanBio has been led by three people who founded the company: Dr John Archer from Cambridge University (now the company’s Chief Scientific Officer); Noor Azlin Mokhtar, originally a PhD student at Cambridge working with John and now the company’s Director of Operations; and Suhaiza Ahmad Jamhor, who has a Masters degree in Biotechnology from Universiti Selangor in Malaysia.
The company’s Chief Executive is Paul Beastall, who has had a career in scaling UK technology companies and has been instrumental in transforming HutanBio from a science-based company into a commercial venture.
Dr Archer said:
Clean Growth Fund’s investment in HutanBio, coupled with the strong commercial interest in HBx now being shown by potential customers from around the world, is hugely exciting and underlines the company’s massive potential.
“We have been patient and rigorous in our scientific work to ensure that HBx is market-ready, demonstrating the world-class expertise and tenacity of our team.”
“We believe that HBx unlocks the biofuel puzzle, with the capability to produce a cost-effective biofuel an order of magnitude greater than any other oil-crop.”
The investment from Clean Growth Fund will support the expansion of HutanBio’s engineering and business development teams in Cambridge.
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HutanBio wins £2.25m to fast-track biofuels supply to global shipping and aviation industries, January 18, 2024
