US$1.8 billion. That is the figure that Singapore-based Chitose Bio Evolution is seeking to raise over the next few years to finance one of the world's largest complexes for growing and processing microalgae into biofuels and food. A consortium of 35 Japanese companies, including vehicle manufacturer Honda and oil refiner Eneos, have banded together to create initial demand for the project. 

Chitose is building a 5-hectare pilot complex in Malaysia and is negotiating to extend it, in the industrial stage, to 2,000 hectares by 2027. The greener side of the project is that it uses CO2 to feed the microalgae. The plan is to use CO2 from a neighboring thermoelectric plant to produce 140,000 tons per year of microalgae. These organisms absorb more than 8 times the volume of CO2 as a soybean plant.

When operating at full capacity, Chitose expects to sell about US$1 billion a year.