Cambridge University spin-off HutanBio lands $3.15M investment

In the UK, after a decade of research and development in the UK and around the world, HutanBio, a bio-tech company founded by scientists from Cambridge University, based in Cambridge (UK) and in Malaysia, has secured a £2.25 million investment from Clean Growth Fund to accelerate the commercial use of its HBx bio-fuel oil to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

HutanBio is aiming to secure a significant share of the maritime fuels market over the next decade, mandated by the International Maritime Organisation to reduce CO₂ emissions by at least 40% by 2030 (compared to 2008), to account for its carbon emissions this year (2024) and stop using fossil fuels by 2050. Designed from the outset as a ready-made drop-in replacement fuel for the global shipping industry, HBx will support these mandates.

HutanBio’s HBx bio-oil is a sustainable and scalable high energy density, low carbon, sulfur-free, fuel solution, that uses CO₂ greenhouse gas as a feedstock for algae that are grown in special “bio-reactor farms”. These farms, designed and engineered by HutanBio and controlled by Artificial Intelligence to optimise yields, will be built on unproductive and non-agricultural semi-arid and arid land in countries where there are high levels of sunlight. 

Drawing on its extensive global cultivation trials and research work undertaken in Malaysia, HutanBio will provide the algae cultures and expert guidance to set up bio-reactor farms around the world. The biofarms will increase a country’s energy security, provide a major economic stimulus and enhance the local environment. HutanBio will help countries to become green and sustainable powerhouses. The company is investigating the possibility of its first biofarms to be in Morocco and Australia.