Manta Biofuel
17 Glynn Garth , Reisterstown, Maryland, United States

Algae is widely considered to be the perfect source for biofuels: it grows so fast it can double its biomass in a day, and it can be farmed cheaply at large scales. At Manta Biofuel, our mission is to commercialize the production of biofuel made from algae, by making it cost-competitive for the first time.In 2014, Dr. Ryan Powell and Onur Unal founded Manta Biofuel, with the goal of commercializing a process to produce renewable crude oil from algae. Their motivation was simple: we have a global infrastructure that is dependent on crude oil, and there is no technology that exists to make this infrastructure renewable. Plenty of companies are successfully making renewable fuels, but we are still dependent on fossil fuels because there is no cost-effective, renewable replacement for crude oil.

Currently, we have solidified our core technology, and are working on demonstrating our process at scale. We have field-validated the individual components, or “unit operations,” of our system. Our current task is integrating these components into an automated production pipeline and scaling up production at our 15-acre pilot facility. We plan to sell the renewable fuel oil produced from our pilot scale facility to local residential and commercial markets.   After validating reliable operation of our pilot facility, we will develop a demonstration facility. This facility will utilize larger production ponds that are our final target size. The goal of the demonstration site is to demonstrate reliable production at scales that are economically viable.   Once we fully validate reliable operations and economies-at-scale we will develop company-run “seed sites”. These sites serve as show places to recruit independent production partners. These partners, who will be local farmers and land owners, will be able to produce oil independently, similar to a franchising model. This model has been used successfully to rapidly scale production of other agricultural products.   We will continue to scale by building more seed sites in suitable areas across the country. Manta will sell algal biofuel production equipment to these independent producers and offer equipment maintenance/repair services. Partnering with independent land owners will facilitate rapid expansion and rural economic growth.

Why can’t wind and solar energy eliminate our dependence on oil?

Renewable energy such as wind and solar is successfully making our electricity grid more and more renewable. However, the marine shipping, automotive, trucking, aviation, and manufacturing industries are heavily dependent on oil, and this infrastructure is difficult to change. Only 0.1% of transportation is powered by electricity; the rest is through liquid fuels. A renewable replacement for crude oil has the potential to make these and other industries renewable  by working with the existing infrastructure.

The main focus in developing renewable fuels is cost. Many companies and research institutions have successfully produced renewable crude oil from algae, but no one has been able to produce it cost-competitively with fossil crude oil. Most attempts to produce fuel from algae have used highly engineered and expensive growth and harvesting systems. These expensive systems result in fuels with high production costs which cannot be sold cost competitively with fossil fuels.