July 9 (Bloomberg) — Denso Corp., 23 percent owned by Toyota Motor Corp., has started to research and develop technology to make fuel from algae.

Denso began the project at the beginning of this year, Tomohiro Miura, a spokesman, said by phone today. No other details have been decided, he said.

The Asahi newspaper reported earlier that Denso will mass- produce diesel made from algae by 2013. The company, based in central Japan’s Kariya city, will extract neutral fat and light oil materials to make diesel from the algae, the paper said.

Denso gained 2.7 percent to 3,490 yen as of 9:36 a.m. on the Tokyo stock exchange.