Solazyme's ascension to the top of Biofuels Digest's Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for 2009-2010 is not a sign of things to come, but a sign of what is.  Algae as a source for biofuels production is very much the promising bioenergy feedstock of the year, with seven algae companies on the list and many more emerging.  Celulosic ethanol companies (19 total companies) and "drop-in" renewable biofuels (15 companies) such as biobutanol, renewable diesel, green gasoline and renewable jet fuel represented the majority of the field.

One hint to why Solazyme is making in-roads in the marketplace prior to proving a full scale commercialization model is its foray into the government market.  In September of 2009, Solazyme announced that is signed a U.S. Department of Defense contract to develop Navy Fuels from algae. At the most recent presentation of The Energy Conversation in Washington, D.C. funded by the Department of Defense the topic of the session was, Can Algae Replace Petroleum as a Clean, Low Carbon, Homegrown Fuel for our Military and More? While the presentations didn't cover the full spectrum of the algae market, the synthesis of the presentations yielded one conclusion, government funding and beta testing, especially with water and algae connected agencies, such as the Navy, starts to make a lot of practical sense.