A corporate-backed startup that uses microbes and plants to produce oil said technological advances will allow the company to fast track its first commercial facility.
Cemvita expects to break ground on its Texas plant next year and begin producing up to 500 barrels a day of bio-oil as soon as 2026 — several years ahead of schedule, according to CEO Moji Karimi.
The levels of productivity and efficiency that “we thought we will get to in 2029, we’re already there,” Karimi said in an interview. “So that allowed us to go back and change those assumptions in the build-out for the commercial plant. And that is what brought the time forward by four or five years.”
The Houston-based company is raising funds to help bankroll the $50 million development. The latest funding round will also “help us drive the cost down,” Karimi said, noting that the company’s goal is to make “cheaper, faster biotech.”
