One Giant Step Closer to Fuel-from-Sunlight by Joule Unlimited

[JohnWxy]

http://cleantechnica.com/2010/02/15/one-giant-step-closer-to-fuel-from-sunlight-by-joule-biotechnologies/


Joule Biotechnologies, Inc. has just announced that a lease agreement has been signed for a new facility in Leander, Texas, which will serve as a pilot plant to develop the company’s solar powered system for producing ethanol and other biofuels. The energy efficient process is based on photosynthetic microorganisms and it operates without the use of conventional biomass or algae biofuel processes.

CleanTechnica and Gas 2.0 have been eagerly following Joule’s progress, and the company has already produced ethanol and diesel at a lab scale rate. It plans to start ethanol production this year at the pilot plant, with diesel to follow early next year. Once operating at full scale, the facility has the potential to deliver at the rate of 25,000 gallons of ethanol per acre yearly, and 15,000 gallons of diesel. That could be the tip of the iceberg, because the same process can also yield a variety of high-value chemicals in addition to biofuels.

Biofuel from Sunlight and Microorganisms

Joule prefers to call its system “solar fuel,” and rightfully so. The heart of the process is the company’s proprietary SolarConverter, which contains photosynthetic organisms in a bath of brackish water and nutrients, with carbon dioxide fed in. While the concept is similar to producing algae biofuel, there are several significant twists. The organisms are not algae, they are bio-engineered proprietary organisms that produce and secrete fuel without the need for costly fermentation processes, extraction or refinement processes. The system also skips the need to collect and transport large quantities of biomass.
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Joule Unlimited

[pscot]

1. It sounds almost too good

to be true.

[JohnWxy]

2. Joule was selected by MIT’s Technology Review as one of the world’s ten most important emerging

.... technologies for 2010:


http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/06/03/portrait-of-a-transformative-technology-joule-unlimited

[4dsc]

3. Believe it when and if it happens.

Everything works well in labs. Its when they go to a bigger scale for production they have problems.

[4dsc]

4. Doesn't look good after all

Disruptive Technologies Are So Overrated

http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2009/08/21/disruptive-technologies-are-so-overrated/

[JohnWxy]

5. the article you refer to by Robert Rapier, well known fossil fuelophile, is from aug 2009

Presumably the committee at MIT who selected Joule Unlimited as achieving one of the 10 transformative technologies of 2010 found something to be rather more impressed about than the dubious Mr. Rapier. But what do the guys at MIT know?

http://www.massbio.org/news/member_news/140-solar_fuel_pioneered_by_joule_named_among/industry_news_detail

Breakthrough platform for direct conversion of sunlight into renewable diesel earns Joule a place among the prestigious Technology Review TR10 for 2010

Cambridge, Mass. – April 21, 2010 – Joule today announced the inclusion of its solar platform for renewable fuel production among MIT Technology Review’s 2010 TR10, an annual list of the world’s ten most important emerging technologies. The distinction follows Joule’s selection to the 2010 TR50 in February, which recognized the world’s 50 most innovative companies. Alongside Google, Joule was one of only two companies to achieve both honors.
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Joule’s platform is the first to convert sunlight and waste CO2 into liquid fuels, including fungible diesel, in a direct, single-step, continuous process – eliminating the biomass dependencies and inefficient processing that have hindered biofuels. As cited by Technology Review, this elimination of the “middleman” allows Joule to achieve much higher productivities with comparatively minimal land use. At full-scale production, Joule can generate billions of gallons of renewable diesel in a highly-efficient process that conserves natural resources and consumes waste CO2.
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TR10: Solar Fuel - MIT Technology Review

...By manipulating and designing genes, Joule has created photosynthetic microörganisms that use sunlight to efficiently convert carbon dioxide into ethanol or diesel--the first time this has ever been done, the company says. Joule grows the microbes in photobioreactors that need no fresh water and occupy only a fraction of the land needed for biomass-based approaches. The creatures secrete fuel continuously, so it's easy to collect. Lab tests and small trials lead Afeyan to estimate that the process will yield 100 times as much fuel per hectare as fermenting corn to produce ethanol, and 10 times as much as making it from sources such as agricultural waste. He says costs could be competitive with those of fossil fuels.
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... note that the fuel is secreted as a product of the organisms metabolic processes. Harvesting of the organism is not required as with algae.

of course anything that has never been done before bears the risk of the unknown. But if, in the past, we had refused to try new technologies and take on new challenges because the outcome was not certain, we would still be eating raw meat and living in caves.__JW