Solazyme joins algae elite with additional $45M

South San Francisco, Calif.-based Solazyme has raised $45.4 million, the company confirmed to the Cleantech Group today.

Solazyme had previously raised about $25 million in venture capital, debt and federal grants for its process using fermentation to speed the growth of algae in the dark. Most recently, Solazyme said it raised $5 million in December (see Investors eat up algae and other fuels).

The company didn't release details of the funding, but company Chief Executive Jonathan Wolfson has said he expects Solazyme's diesel to be market-ready by 2010 or 2012.

Solazyme is the only company so far to get approval from the American Society for Testing and Materials for its algae-based diesel, which the company is using to power an SUV at its headquarters, but Wolfson has said it will take a couple years to build a plant capable of producing about 100 million gallons per year.

Solazyme and Naples, Fla.-based Algenol Biofuels are two of the algae based fuel companies specifically touting scalability (see Turning algae into ethanol, and gold).

The investment in Solazyme follows a flurry of announcements from rival algae companies. As predicted in May by Cleantech Group Senior Research Director Brian Fan, algae companies are aggressively raising new rounds to scale their products to keep up with Sapphire Energy, which in May raised $50 million—the single largest round to date by an algae company (see Cleantech investments hit a record high and Governments dole out cash for cleantech).

In June, Alameda, Calif.-based Aurora Biofuels said it raised $20 million, and, in May, GreenFuel Technologies said it closed a Series B round of $13.9 million for technology development and scaling (see Aurora Biofuels lands $20M in Series B).

Other companies in the field include LiveFuels, Aquaflow Bionomic, PetroAlgae, among others.

Before its fuel substitute hits the market, Solazyme plans to first sell algae-based oils as substitutes for cooking oil or skincare products, Wolfson has said.

Earlier this year, Solazyme announced plans to work with Chevron (see Solazyme to work with Chevron on algae fuel).