In a ceremony held Thursday in Beijing, San Diego’s Sapphire Energy and Sinopec, China’s state-owned oil and gas conglomerate, agreed to work together to develop and produce algae-based biofuels in China.
“The goal is to build a large demonstration facility here with Sinopec,” Sapphire spokesman Tim Zenk said last night from Beijing in a phone call that preceded the ceremony. “We believe this will help us continue to validate what we have accomplished in New Mexico.”
Sapphire said last year that it was beginning year-round production of algae-based “green crude” at its 300-acre commercial algae farm and bio-refinery near Columbus, NM. Establishing a similar plant in China should enable the company to substantially lower its production costs.
It might even prove crucial for Sapphire, as the biofuels industry has lost some luster in recent years; fracking has substantially lowered the cost of conventional petroleum production in the United States, where government policies also are buffeted by contrary energy interests.
Sapphire Energy and Sinopec were among six new U.S.-China partners formally selected for a flagship EcoPartnerships Program during a signing ceremony in China’s Hall of the People in Beijing. The program is intended to promote cooperation between U.S. and Chinese interests on clean energy, climate change, and environmental protection.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been meeting with Chinese leaders as part of a
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
View all posts by Bruce V. Bigelow
It might even prove crucial for Sapphire, as the biofuels industry has lost some luster in recent years; fracking has substantially lowered the cost of conventional petroleum production in the United States, where government policies also are buffeted by contrary energy interests.