Oleo Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions is developing a technology that transforms biomass waste into sustainable oil inputs for the consumer goods and biofuel industries. Oleo’s technology has the potential to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, prevent deforestation, and decarbonize the transportation industry.
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Gabriella Dweck
Gabriella Dweck is a founder and co-CEO of Oleo Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions, a venture transforming wasted biomass into sustainable oil. Before founding Oleo, Dweck worked as a process engineer at W. L. Gore & Associates in new product development and as a manufacturing engineer at Abbott Laboratories. She has an M.S. in engineering design impact from Stanford University and a B.S. in biomedical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Kelly Redmond
Kelly Redmond is a founder and co-CEO of Oleo Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions, a biotechnology company transforming waste into sustainable oil supply-chain inputs. Redmond completed a B.Sc. in environmental engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an M.S. in engineering at Stanford University. Before starting Oleo, Redmond worked as an environmental science and engineering officer in the U.S. Army, managing large-scale environmental health programs, projects, and operations.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Seed oils, such as palm and soy, are top drivers of deforestation and major greenhouse gas emitters, yet are deeply embedded across corporate supply chains from consumer goods to biofuels. It's estimated that 20-30 percent of all agricultural land is dedicated to growing oilseed crops, emitting 5-25X more greenhouse gasses than other crops. Despite the deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions associated with vegetable oil production, global demand is steadily rising. Developing sustainable oil production methods that don’t depend on arable land is necessary to meet rising seed oil demand without depleting finite natural resources.
Technology Vision
Oleo Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions is developing a process for transforming wasted biomass into sustainable oil inputs for consumer goods and biofuel supply chains. Oleo's technology leverages a two-step process in which we extract fermentable sugars from recalcitrant biomass using microwave technology and then use those fermentable sugars as a substrate for fermenting yeast in the second step of our process to produce lipids with the same fatty acid profile as palm oil. Oleo's technology can help eliminate the need for land conversion while meeting rising global demand for vegetable oils.
Potential for Impact
Oleo’s process produces a low-carbon oil that has the potential to replace carbon-intensive oils across the consumer goods and biofuels industries, abating carbon emissions and eliminating the need for deforestation. Not only can Oleo’s product prevent tropical deforestation by displacing palm oil from corporate supply chains, but it can also serve as a feedstock for producing biofuels for use in maritime shipping and aviation to help decarbonize difficult-to-electrify transportation industry segments.
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