Mazda (www.mazda.co.jp) is currently involved in joint research projects and studies as part of an on-going industry-academia-government collaboration to promote the widespread adoption of biofuels from micro-algae growth.

As part of its Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030 long-term technology development programme, the company says it is committed to reducing its average ‘well-to-wheel’ CO₂ emissions to 50% of 2010 levels by 2030, and to 10% by 2050.

Expecting that internal-combustion engines combined with some form of electrification will still account for around 95% of the vehicles it produces in 2030, and that liquid fuel will remain dominant in the automotive industry until at least 2040, Mazda considers a renewable liquid fuel essential to drastic CO₂ reduction (when burnt, algae biofuel only releases CO₂ recently removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis, as the algae grows).

Mazda considers the development of micro-algae biofuel to be critical to achieving the carbon-neutrality of cars powered by the internal-combustion engine, adding that algae fuels can be farmed on land unsuitable for agriculture, can be grown with minimal impact on freshwater resources, and can be produced using saline and wastewater.

Moreover, they have a high flash point, are biodegradable and are relatively harmless to the environment if spilled.

The US Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all petroleum fuel in the USA, its growth would require an area equivalent to just 0.42% of the American land mass — less than one seventh of the area used to grow corn in the USA in the year 2000.

Mazda is lending ‘research-accelerating’ technical support to both research into genome editing by Hiroshima University and the study of plant physiology by the Tokyo Institute of Technology.