Six years of continuous algae cultivation. Zero crop failures.

A world first.

In this episode of the Sustainable Times Podcast, we sit down

with HutanBio CEO Manshu Agarwal and Founder & Chief Scientific

Officer Dr John Archer — the Cambridge-based biotech quietly

building one of the most credible answers to the hard-to-abate

fuel problem.

Where ExxonMobil walked away from algae biofuel and competitors

like Viridos spent years on genetically-modified strains,

HutanBio took a fundamentally different path. Their proprietary

marine microalgae strain, Sphaerica — discovered through a

multi-year bioprospecting programme in extreme tropical marine

habitats — delivers up to 10x the yield of previous algae and

oil crops. No genetic modification. No fresh water. No

competition with arable land. Grown on seawater, in desert

environments, using only CO₂ and sunlight.

The result: HBx Bio Oil — a net-negative carbon biofuel

designed for the sectors fossil fuels still own. Maritime.

Aviation. Heavy land transport.

What we cover:

— The two-decade scientific journey from Cambridge and KAUST

to commercial deployment

— Why the algae biofuel market has failed before, and what

HutanBio is doing differently

— The Sphaerica discovery and what makes it commercially

defensible

— Building a high-yield, modular production platform engineered

for desert deployment

— The £2.25m Clean Growth Fund investment and what scaling

looks like next

— The IMO 2030 emissions mandate and why maritime is the

beachhead market

— What investors should understand about the hard-to-abate

fuel opportunity in 2026

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GUESTS

Manshu Agarwal — CEO, HutanBio

linkedin.com/in/manshuagarwal

Dr John Archer — Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, HutanBio

linkedin.com/in/john-archer-b551569

Harvey Knight — CEO & Founder, Sustainable Group

linkedin.com/in/harvey-knight-38aa91a9

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ABOUT HUTANBIO

Founded in 2019 by Dr John Archer (Cambridge), Dr Noor Azlin

Mokhtar, and Suhaiza Jamhor, HutanBio is a UK-based climate

biotech developing scalable, net-negative carbon biofuels from

proprietary marine microalgae. Manshu Agarwal joined as CEO

in late 2025. The company is backed by Clean Growth Fund and

based in Cambridge with operations in Malaysia.

hutanbio.com

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