Under the agreement and the license agreement to be completed, Indian Oil will build a pilot facility to demonstrate commercial viability of producing renewable fuels from micro-crops in India.

A commercial production facility with 200,000 metric tons a year capacity would then be built under license.

Micro-crops include a range of microorganisms that can be harvested daily and yield between 25 and 100 times as much as macro-crops such as corn, soybeans and sugar cane, according to PetroAlgae.

These include algae, cyanobacteria, micro-angiosperms, and macro-algae and micro-algae. They can be grown on non-arable land, removing competition with the food supply. Micro-crop fuels are carbon-neutral, consuming nearly double their own weight in carbon dioxide.

PetroAlgae’s business model is designed to generate revenue from licensing its technology for production systems, micro-crop strains and process controls to well-capitalized companies or investors, enabling them to become high-volume algal oil producers.

“We consider our model to be the lowest-risk path to market strength in what can be a high-risk, emerging industry,” John Scott, PetroAlgae chief executive told shareholders. “We are selling the tools that will allow producers to operate with maximum efficiency in a price-sensitive, competitive environment.”

The company chooses the best microorganism for each specific location, indigenous to the region. Then it is scaled up to a high yielding micro-crop.

PetroAlgae is based in Melbourne, Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It operates a prototype production facility and research laboratories in Fellsmere, Florida, south of Melbourne.