Solazyme, Unilever pen R&D deal

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. Solazyme, a renewable oil and bioproducts company, has inked a research and development agreement with Unilever to develop oil derived from algae for use in soaps and other personal care products, Solazyme has announced.

"Algal oil provides important benefits in personal care applications," explained Jonathan Wolfson, CEO of Solazyme. "Solazyme's algal oils can help meet the growing demand for completely renewable, natural and sustainable personal care products. Unilever is an acknowledged world leader in sustainability and we are honored to be working with them to develop this new renewable source of natural oils for their world class consumer products."

Solazyme and Unilever are working to demonstrate a process to incorporate targeted algal oils into personal care products at a commercially relevant scale. The work will further develop Solazyme's technology platform, which allows algae to produce oil and biomaterials in standard fermentation facilities quickly, efficiently and at large scale.

Among other sustainability initiatives, Unilever is exploring various next-generation sources of renewable oil for use in its products. Unilever's collaboration with Solazyme represents a step in the company's exploration of algae as a source of renewable oil.

"Unilever is committed to the highest sustainability and environmental practices and is working to drive industry change and set new standards," added Peter Gallagher, VP global skin R&D, for Unilever. "Exploring sources of alternative natural oils is one of the most important aspects of our greater sustainable sourcing strategy and working with Solazyme's algal oils is an excellent fit."