Solazyme and Unilever enter into development agreement for renewable oils

As part of the development agreement, Unilever will continue to fund the research for the renewable and sustainable forms of algal oil at Solazyme.

Derived from algae, algan oil has continued to be developed using technology provided by Solazyme, with the goal of being used in Unilever’s personal care products like soaps.

“Algal oil provides important health benefits in personal care applications. Solazyme’s algal oils can help meet the growing demand for completely renewable, natural and sustainable personal care products​”, said Jonathan Wolfson, Solazyme CEO.

Sustainable living plan​

This has been with the aim of ultimately using the renewable algan oil as part of its product formulations to stay in line with its sustainability efforts.

“Unilever has an ambition to double its business and halve its environmental impact​”, commented Neal Matheson, Unilever CTO.

“Under what we call our Sustainable Living Plan, we are committed to sourcing 100 percent of our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020​.”

Previous development agreements​

This is the fourth collaboration between the two companies, the first of which was formed in 2009 to perform initial research and development in to the use of algae and algan oil.

Algae has been used in a broad range of personal care products for many years, but is increasingly being included in formulations on the back of growing interest in natural- and organic-based formulations.

Traditionally algae has been used as thickening agents, water-binding agents and antioxidants – the latter having characteristics that make it a very useful ingredient in a range of anti-aging formulations.