BIO president and CEO Jim Greenwood said BP’s participation signalled an important shift in fuels production that would couple biotechnology with the use of renewable agricultural feedstocks.

“Twenty years of research in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics is now paying off, and industrial biotechnology is the enabling technology behind this shift," Greenwood said.

BP’s chief scientist, Steve Koonin, supported the sentiment, saying BP joined BIO because it believes biotechnology will be an important route to new sources of secure and sustainable energy in the coming decades.

“We are investing substantially in alternative energy and have just launched a dedicated biofuels business to exploit advances in the biosciences - it will be a very exciting part of BP's future," Koonin said.

BP's membership in BIO follows its announcement today of a $500 million investment to establish an Energy Biosciences Institute.

The research institute will add to BP's investment in alternative energy and sustainable development, which already includes introduction of E10 at its fuelling stations throughout the world and production of ethanol.

BIO's Industrial and Environmental Section (IES) is one of four sections within BIO's governance structure; the others are Health, Food and Agriculture, and Emerging Companies.

The IES comprises companies that develop and use biotech-improved microbes or enzymes to convert agricultural crops and crop residues to biofuels, biocatalysis to produce a host of chemical and industrial goods, and enzymes for cleaner manufacturing processes.