Joule Unlimited secures 1,200 acre site for making ethanol and diesel from sunlight and CO2

[JohnWxy]

http://www.sunherald.com/2011/05/05/3085384/joule-secures-first-of-multiple.html


CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Marking another milestone in its advance towards commercialization, Joule Unlimited, Inc. today announced the signing of a lease agreement providing access to 1,200 acres in Lea County, New Mexico, with the potential to scale the project up to 5,000 acres for production of renewable diesel and ethanol directly from sunlight and waste CO2. The agreement with Lea County is the first to be completed as part of Joule’s production facility siting program.

“This is an exciting first step for Joule in an effort to secure multiple optimal sites for demonstration, both within and beyond the United States, and to ultimately commercialize our process at the scale, costs and productivities that can make a strong impact in the global fuels market,” said Bill Sims, President and CEO of Joule. “In stark contrast to the complex, energy-intensive processes required to produce biofuels from biomass, Joule is forging ahead with a platform for high-volume production of renewable, infrastructure-ready diesel and ethanol at stable, competitive costs. We thank the state and Lea County officials for their tremendous support of this project.”

Lea County ideally meets Joule’s requirements for production, including high solar insolation, access to non-potable water and waste CO2. In addition, Joule could benefit from $19 million in state incentives to facilitate operations at commercial scale. This includes a tax credit made possible by the Advanced Energy Product Manufacturers Tax Credit Act, which the state legislature voted to amend in recognition of new, breakthrough processes like Joule’s that merit qualification.

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Joule’s production facilities will employ the next generation of the company’s novel SolarConverter® system, which manages the direct, continuous process from photon capture to product synthesis and separation with efficiencies that are up to 50X greater than those of biomass-dependent processes. At full-scale production, Joule expects to deliver diesel and ethanol for as little as $20/bble and $0.60/gallon respectively, including current subsidies.
(more)

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/05/05/3085384/joule-secures-first-of-multiple.html#ixzz1LV4zNOGz

[Curmudgeoness]

1. How cool is this! I just know that there are superb minds

out there working on alternative energy sources. I wish them all the luck in the world that this succeeds.

[JohnWxy]

3. Joule received recognition from MIT's Tech Review as one of the most significant tech companies of

..2010.

They have a bioengineered organism that secretes ethanol (now they have another one that secretes diesel fuel - no refining needed) as a product of it's metabolism. The organism lives happily in grungy waste water and is supplied CO2 (e.g. from industrial plants or electric power installations) and kicks out ethanol (another one produces diesel fuel). They expect to be able to produce about 20,000 gallons of ethanol an acre per year (15,000 gallons per yr of diesel).

NOte that this organism does NOT HAVE TO BE HARVESTED (as most algae projects require) to obtain the fuel! Eventually the organism does die at which point it can be harvested and the organic matter can be used as feedstock to produce fuel as they have been doing in the algae projects.

if interested here is some more on Joule Unlimited:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x252311


http://www.jouleunlimited.com/why-solar-fuel/overview">Joule Unlimited

[Nihil]

5. Whilst naturally wary of bioengineered organisms ...

... the one that excretes biodiesel sounds fascinating!

:wow:

[CRH]

8. You answered my posts 6 & 7 ...

I should have read the entire thread before posting, ... my bad, sorry.

[BrendaBrick]

2. Not sure if this is related....

But I heard just recently where a European country (France?) was buying land in the Sahara Desert for solar reasons? Also, was doing a search here at DU regarding ethanol and ran across this link a poster cited relative to "Backyard Ethanol"

http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol.html

[JohnWxy]

4. they (not France) are investigating making ethanol from Kudzu. It grows wild in the South

The only question I have about this is harvesting the plant in an efficient (mechanicanized) way. In making fuel you can't have very high labor costs or you can't be competitive. On the other hand, you probably can obtain the Kudzu pretty cheap. It's a problem in the South.


http://chemicallygreen.com/kudzu-ethanol/">Kudzu ethanol plant startup in Tennessee


i don't think France is contemplating growing any crop in the Sahara as there is the problem of finding water there. They may be thinking of solar power for electricity.

[CRH]

6. I read the link but didn't see it, ...

was waste CO2 ever defined? Vegetation? Certainly not the trash from a dry ice factory. Waste CO2, from what source? Any ideas?

[CRH]

7. Answering my own post, but, ...

possibly recycling the distillate from the diesel / ethanol production? What waste CO2?

[4dsc]

9. See will be believing.

“Robert, this is off-topic, but could you comment on Joule Unlimited’s claim that they can create diesel or gasoline using E. coli bacteria, and that their method can produce 800bbl per acre?”

Hi Laura,

Been getting lots of inquiries about this. Here is what I have been telling people:

“I was at the Pacific Rim Summit a year ago when Joule announced what they were doing. I was sitting with a number of algae experts, and they were very skeptical. I would also say that they are at a very early stage — still in the lab. Most technologies don’t progress out of the lab, so the best I could say is that it is premature to count on much of anything from them. I look at it as a research project, and most of those do not pan out.”

The truth is, we have heard all of this before. Maybe one day one of these really will be a game changer, but in my view their claims are very premature based on the fact that they don’t yet even have a pilot facility. It may turn out that in fact their claims ultimately pan out, but it is a pretty safe bet that 90% of what looks promising in the lab never makes it to a commercial scale.

RR

http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2011/01/17/who-how-and-why-140-oil-and-5-gas/