San Francisco-based biofuel developer Solazyme, Inc. has raised $45.4 million in Series C funding. The deal, which also included approximately $6.4 million in convertible securities, was backed by return investors The Roda Group and Harris & Harris Group, along with new backers Braemar Energy Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

            The company specifically focuses on producing biofuels from algae. Compared to other biofuels, algae provide much higher yield, though at a higher cost.

According to their website, Solazyme utilizes three methods to try and work at maximizing the efficiency of algae fuel: directed evolution, high-throughput robotic screening, and metabolic engineering. At their simplest, these methods revolve around choosing the microbes that perform best and cultivating them.

The combination of methods leads to Solazyme's "microbial fermentation" process, so that the algae produces oil in standard fermentation facilities "quickly, efficiently, and at large scale."
            Although they are somewhat high cost, biofuels from algae produce much more energy than terrestrial crops, and could, with more research, prove to be a viable replacement for oil.