In addition, the company's Green Crude Farm, the world's first commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility (also known as the Integrated Algal BioRefinery or IABR), for which construction began in June 2011, is now operating in Luna County, near Columbus, New Mexico.
[4] In December 2013, Sapphire Energy and Phillips 66 announced they will work together to analyze and confirm that Green Crude can be refined in traditional refineries, and that it meets all Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) certification requirements under the Clean Air Act.
In 2008, Sapphire Energy announced it had raised more than $100 million in a Series B funding round which included ARCH Venture Partners, Wellcome Trust, Venrock and Cascade Investment, LLC.
[4] The $54.5 million loan guarantee awarded through the Biorefinery Assistance Program was issued to build a fully integrated, algae-to-crude oil commercial demonstration facility in Columbus, New Mexico.
The company used Syntroleum Inc (SYNM) technology to provide fifty gallons of gasoline for the Algaeus, a plugin-hybrid Toyota Prius that drove across the United States in September 2009.
[4] Sapphire Energy sold off the Integrated Algal BioRefinery in Luna County in 2019 to Green Stream Farms who use it to grow algae for use in nutritional products and livestock feed.
[citation needed] According to the company, "Green Crude" oil meets fuel quality standards, and is completely compatible with the existing petroleum infrastructure, from refinement through distribution to retail suppliers.
[4] In August 2012, Sapphire Energy announced that its commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility, the Green Crude Farm, is up and running with the on-time and on budget completion of Phase 1 construction, which began June 2011.
In the September 2012 issue of Forbes magazine, Sapphire Energy expects its Green Crude to "be competitive with petroleum by 2018 if it can produce a minimum of 5,000 barrels a day".