The strategy, Roessler explains, will be to grow oil-producing
algae in concentrated conditions, “to maximize photosynthetic
productivity and take up greenhouse gases at the same time.”
Venter jumps in: “This is our halfway house ... a long way from
the lab. The next phase is doing this in large outdoor
facilities.” Gigantic, Venter says. “We’re thinking a facility
extending over multiple square miles.” Venter and the scientists
at his six-year-old company, Synthetic Genomics, are seeking
strains of algae that are exceptionally good at turning carbon
dioxide, water and sunlight into oil. The researchers intend to
use genes from those strains to engineer algae cells that are
even better at pumping out oil. Eventually, ExxonMobil, which
plans to spend $600 million, $300 million of that in
collaboration with Synthetic Genomics, hopes to refine oil from
algae into gasoline. Other oil companies are joining biotech
firms in similar efforts; Venter’s main competition may come
from researchers trying to reengineer ye