A major Japanese oil refining company says it has developed an artificial, contamination-free method of making the blood protein albumin. Masanori Suzuki, head of genetic engineering for the Tonen Corp., said in an interview Wednesday that the technique is the first to synthesize human albumin with an authentic cell structure.

The protein, now commonly extracted from donated blood, is used to treat burn victims and people with albumin deficiency.

Suzuki said albumin taken from human blood is sometimes contaminated with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus or other disease-causing agents. Synthetic albumin, however, presents no risk of contamination.

Tonen aims for full-scale production in three to five years.