Exxon moves $600M into biofuels research...in the ocean

[Rybold]

HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will make its first major investment in greenhouse-gas reducing biofuels in a $600 million partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. to develop transportation fuels from algae. One of the company's requirements was finding a biofuel source that could be produced on a large scale. It says photosynthetic algae appears to be a viable, long-term candidate. If the alliance is successful, pumping algae-based gasoline at Exxon service stations is still several years...
Exxon makes first big investment in biofuels - Yahoo! Finance

(the article doesn't say "oceans" but as a biochemist myself, I can tell you that if you grow the algae in "rice fields," you will have to constantly add fertilizers, whereas if you grow it in the ocean, the nutrient-rich ocean water will provide free fertilizer)

[acdii]

Good, a company looking forward. this will give the Algae Sequestration companies a foothold into the bio fuel industry. Algae doesn't need to grow in the ocean, it can be grown from waste gasses from oil and coal fired power plants. The tube technology used to grow the algae is also expanding and they are coming up with more efficient means of housing the growing chambers to take up less space while producing a larger yield.