Veteran Algae Scientist Praises OriginOil’s Technology Results

– Initial Growth Numbers Suggest Viable Return on Investment –

Los Angeles, CA – October 1, 2008 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTCBB: OOIL ), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil , into a true competitor to petroleum, today announced that a prominent algae scientist, Professor Emeritus Takaaki Maekawa, has made a positive evaluation of the company’s technology.

Takaaki Maekawa is professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba’s Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences in Japan. His recent research themes have included “Development of Controlled Ecological Life Support system with Co2 Fixation, Algae, Solid Fermentation.” Professor Maekawa reviewed the initial algae production metrics from OriginOil’s first Helix Bioreactor™ prototype.

OriginOil co-founder Nicholas Eckelberry reported, “With our first prototype, we attained approximately 13.5 grams of dry mass per liter (g-dm/L) of algae mass in a 36 hour period and more as time progressed. Eckelberry added, “The early prototype has since been optimized and we expect to attain 20-25 g-dm/L within a 24-36 hour period. Due to the laboratory scale of the prototype, our encouraging results should be considered projections. Nonetheless, we are excited about the extraordinary algae growth rates in the Helix BioReactor.”

Based on meetings between Professor Maekawa and the OriginOil team, Maekawa commented, “OriginOil did a good job of producing 13.5 g-dm/L of algae. Based on my initial calculations, 20.0 g-dm/L per 36 hour period meets the threshold for optimal return on investment for large scale algae refineries we are studying in Japan. It appears that OriginOil’s Helix Bioreactor and its carbon dioxide supply techniques will help to reach this goal.”

Industry production figures in the algae industry vary widely. In open ponds, a daily growth rate of 2.0 g-dm/L is considered excellent (source). Professor Makoto Watanabe at the University of Tsukuba has reported achieving 3.5 g-dm/L in the laboratory (source). In special cases, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart have reported a maximum concentration of 10 g-dm/L (source).

“We applaud this positive feedback from a respected researcher in the algae-to-oil field”, said Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil. He added, “We are planning discussions with Professor Maekawa for a collaborative research project to attain a provable level of viability based on the combination of our system innovations and his methodologies.”