Solazyme, producer of renewable oil and bioproducts, has won the 2014 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for its breakthrough platform technology to produce sustainable oils and products from microalgae for commercial use in a wide range of industries.
The company produces renewable oil and whole algal products from microalgae that produce a nearly unlimited variety of sustainable oils. This technology also provides the ability to produce multiple types of higher value sustainable oils regardless of season, geographic origin and feedstock source. Moving forward, Solazyme's microalgae-based technology platform is poised to deliver new building blocks of green chemistry that can help reduce environmental impact while creating innovative and better performing products.
The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award promotes the environmental and economic benefits of developing and using novel green chemistry. This annual award recognizes technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture and use. Since its inception in 1996, the EPA in partnership with the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute has received thousands of nominations from leading companies, entrepreneurs and academic researchers pioneering new discoveries.
In September, Solazyme announced a commercial supply agreement with Unilever for the first partnered Solazyme Tailored™ Algal Oil, a culmination of five years of collaboration between the companies. The agreement covers the first of Solazyme and Unilever's jointly developed tailored oils with an initial supply of at least 10,000 metric tons (MT), which Unilever says it will use in its Dove and Brylcreem brand personal care products. The oil will be produced at the Solazyme Bunge Renewable Oils facility, a joint venture of Solazyme and sustainable agribusiness giant Bunge located at Bunge's Moema sugar mill in Brazil. Customary product validation trials are scheduled to take place in Q4 2013.
Earlier in September, Unilever launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneur Awards, a competition hosted on the Ashoka Changemakers platform designed to inspire young people around the world to tackle environmental, social and health issues.