Neste Oil, the world's largest producer of renewable diesel, has signed a contingent commercial offtake agreement with Cellana, a U.S.-based algae biomass developer. The agreement will enable Neste Oil to purchase Cellana’s algae oil for use as a feedstock in the future for producing renewable fuel. The agreement is contingent on Cellana’s future production capacity and on compliance with future biofuel legislation in the EU and U.S., among other factors.

Cellana expects to be able to produce algae oil on a commercial scale from late 2015 onwards. Based in Hawaii and California, Cellana has almost a decade of experience in growing oil-rich algae in its pilot- and demonstration-scale facilities in Hawaii using sea water in its photobioreactors and open ponds. Samples have shown that Cellana is able to produce algae oil suitable for renewable fuel production by Neste Oil.

“We want to support R&D efforts on new, sustainably produced raw materials and increased production of algae oil, which is one of the most interesting future alternatives in this area,” said Neste Oil’s Senior Vice President, Technology, Lars Peter Lindfors. “Studies have already shown that algae oil can be used successfully in our NExBTL process. The offtake agreement with Cellana allows us access to commercial-scale volumes of cost-competitive algae oil in the future. This new agreement fits very well with our strategy aimed at extending the range of feedstocks we use for NExBTL renewable fuel.”
 
The agreement between Neste Oil and Cellana is nonexclusive and allows each company to enter into additional agreements with other parties. Neste Oil is involved in university-led algae research projects in Australia and the Netherlands that are testing a range of methods for cultivating algae outdoors.

Neste Oil is currently the world’s only biofuel producer capable of refining premium-quality renewable fuel from more than 10 different feedstocks on an industrial scale. Research is also under way at Neste Oil on using agricultural and forestry residues to produce microbial oil for feedstock purposes at a new pilot plant at the company’s Technology Centre in Porvoo.