The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored two Bay Area chemical companies Thursday for products and processes that reduce or eliminate hazardous substances and may save water and reduce greenhouse gases too.
Emeryville’s Amyris, Inc. and South San Francisco’s Solazyme, Inc., were among the five organizations in the United States to receive Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Program awards.
Work by both companies, which the EPA called “green chemistry,” could lessen global warming.
“Green chemistry technologies have real world results – reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions while saving water and other scarce resources,” says a statement by Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest.
Amyris Inc., won honors in the small business category for creating yeast that converts plant-based sugars into a replacement for diesel fuel. Buses and trucks using the new fuel could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 82 percent, compared with buses that burn diesel.
Solazyme Inc., won in the green chemicals category for producing renewable oils with much less “energy, water and waste,” the EPA’s statement says.
Jill Kauffman-Johnson, director of sustainability, said Solazyme uses fermentation tanks rather than ponds to produce the oils, using less water in the process. That may be helpful in preserving California’s limited water supply.
“Exciting stuff,” said Kauffman-Johnson.
During the 19 years of the award program, winners have “saved 21 billion gallons of water and eliminated 7.8 billion pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent releases to the atmosphere,” according to the EPA.
An independent panel of experts judged the submissions of the nominated technologies and made the 2014 award recommendations to the EPA.
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