SOLAZYME, INC. (NASDAQ:SZYM)
Solazyme, Inc., transforms low-cost plant sugars into tailored, high-value renewable oils.
Status
Solazyme completed its IPO in May 2011.
The Market
Cleantech - Renewable fuels and chemicals
The Problem
Petroleum-based chemicals and fuels suffer from challenges including constrained supplies, volatile pricing, and potentially negative and irreversible environmental.
Solazyme's Solution
The "drop-in" nature of Solazyme’s tailored oils enables compatibility with existing production, refining, and distribution infrastructure in each of its target markets. Its oils can be tailored to address key performance properties of petroleum and/or other natural oils. 
Currently, Solazyme’s technology platform is addressing the fuels, chemicals, nutritionals, and skin and personal care markets.
Nanotechnology Factor
Solazyme uses nanoscale genetic engineering of microalgae and standard industrial fermentation equipment to efficiently scale and accelerate the microalgae's natural oil production time to just a few days. By growing its proprietary microalgae in the absence of light using fermentation tanks to convert photosynthetic plant sugars into oil, it is in effect utilizing "indirect photosynthesis."
See Solazyme, Inc. on YouTube
See an Interview with Tyler Painter of Solazyme, Inc. at the
2012 Harris & Harris Group Meet the Portfolio Day Event
