Researchers discover Arctic phytoplankton that synthesises hydrocarbons equivalent to petroleum

Climate changes make larger parts of the Arctic Ocean ice-free each summer. With less ice cover, more of the sea bathing in temple sunlight causing life to more phytoplankton blooms.

The Japanese Ocean Research and Development Organization have reported the discovery of phytoplankton which can produce the same components as gasoline, broadcaster NHK reports. In the future, this could again be used to produce a new kind of biofuels.

Phytoplankton, sometimes also referred to as microalgae, are similar to terrestrial plants in the sense that they contain chlorophyll and require sunlight to survive. Phytoplankton is the base of several aquatic food webs and is consumed by a multitude of sea creatures.

The phytoplankton was first discovered in the Arctic Ocean in 2013 during a research voyage conducted by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology’s (JAMSTEC) research vessel “Mirai”. The ship, originally built as the nuclear-powered general cargo ship “Mutsu”, was in the 1990s rebuilt to become one of the largest ocean research vessels in the world. The 130-meter-long oceanographic vessel holds 13 permanent labs and typically additionally carries up to four semi-mobile containerized laboratories.

The voyage took place in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

It was in one of Mirai’s labs that the Arctic phytoplankton was first cultivated as well as studied in detail. Previously, reports had been published explicating that the phytoplankton is capable of producing a specific oil component.

However, the fact that the organism can also produce and store the same components as gasoline and diesel fuel was reported by NHK News in late July.

According to scientists from the Ocean Research and Development Organization, phytoplankton is only capable of storing a limited amount of the component. Hence, producing biofuel using phytoplankton would be highly difficult at this stage.

However, improvements in the phytoplankton’s storage capacity, through for example gene modification, would enable the development of new biofuels.

Algae that are capable of producing constituents of certain fuels have been discovered in the past. However, as the researchers note, this is the first reported phytoplankton that is capable of not only producing but also accumulating and storing the same substance found in gasoline and diesel fuel.

Naomi Harada, the director of JAMSTEC, said to NHK she was surprised by the findings: “I thought that oil was mixed in at the beginning, and I was surprised at how many times I repeated the analysis.”