Joule announces new eco-friendly technologies

Joule Biotechnologies is disclosing its technology and business plans for making ethanol and other liquid fuels from genetically manipulated microorganisms that have been fed only sunlight and carbon dioxide. Its HelioCulture system works without a biomass feedstock, such as algae or others plants and instead engineered organisms grow through photosynthesis in a brackish water solution and directly excrete fuel or commercial chemicals. The process is built around its SolarConverter, which collects sunlight and feeds carbon dioxide into the solution. These modules can be strung together to make a larger facility. The solution can be recycled once the fuel is separated.

The company estimates it can produce 20,000 gallons of fuel per acre per year, which is far more than existing processes or others under development. It claims that it can make its end product–ethanol or another hydrocarbon fuel–with an energy equivalent of less than $50 per barrel. The company is now testing a prototype SolarConverter in New Mexico and plans to break ground on an ethanol-making facility in early 2010. It anticipates having an industrial-scale facility later in 2010. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars invested in cellulosic ethanol, there are still no commercial-scale operations that can turn woods, grasses, or agricultural residue into ethanol or hydrocarbon replacements.
[Cnet]