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Mazda's microalgae biodiesel R&D project selected for NEDO's FY2026 program
Mazda Motor Corporation has announced that its R&D project "Development of High-Density Microalgal Biofuel" was selected for the fiscal 2026 program of NEDO, the Japanese government agency that funds the commercialization of energy-saving decarbonization technologies. The project targets renewable HVO biodiesel refined from microalgal lipids. Mazda, which has researched algae biofuels since the 2010s together with Hiroshima University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, will lead the upstream chain — high-density cultivation, harvesting, drying and lipid extraction — while Idemitsu Kosan will study refining the extracted lipids into usable fuel. Mazda says it has validated production of more than one liter of fuel in about two weeks from a 1000-liter cultivation tank. As a first industrial application, the company aims to factory-fill every diesel vehicle built at its Japanese plants with algae-derived HVO biodiesel in the early 2030s. Director and CSO Takeji Kojima framed the effort within Mazda's multi-solution strategy toward a regional circular energy model.