In what could be a major breakthrough, Joule Biotechnologies announced that it has directly produced fuel from the plentiful carbon dioxide in the air around us using highly engineered photosynthetic microbes.
It seems impossible, but biofuel startup Joule Biotechnologies claims that it has successfully produced fuel out of thin air–sort of. The company’s mysterious engineered microbes require just sunlight and CO2 to squirt out ethanol, diesel, or other hydrocarbons.
Joule’s Helioculture process uses photosynthetic microbes placed in a non-freshwater solution. The organisms capture sunlight and produce “Joule liquid energy,” which is similar to biofuel but isn’t derived from biomass.
According to the patent, Joule’s secret sauce is an engineered cyanobacteria (or blue-green algae) containing “a recombinant acyl ACP reductase (AAR) enzyme and a recombinant alkanal decarboxylative monooxygenase (ADM) enzyme.” That witches’ brew of cyanobacteria and enzymes allows for hydrocarbon production in a single step. The organisms just capture sunlight to produce “Joule liquid energy”, a biofuel-like substance. Joule liquid energy can be an ethanol or diesel fuel replacement.
Unlike similar algae fuel solutions, Joule’s process doesn’t require feedstock or fresh water and can be conducted on non-arable land. The process also produces a whopping 20,000 gallons per acre, compared to 400 gallons per acre for corn ethanol. According to Joule, this is all possible because of the discovery of genes inside its proprietary microbes that allow for the direct synthesis of alkane and olfin molecules–the chemicals involved in the composition of diesel fuel. From there, it’s easy to generate ethanol and other types of fuel.
Inside specially designed reactors, Joule’s engineered microbes thrive off of sunlight and CO2. In return, depending on the type of organism, they can produce straight ethanol, diesel or a number of other types of hydrocarbons.
Although the process sounds similar to algae-produced biofuels, the Joule process is incredibly (and beneficially) different for several reasons:
- Doesn’t produce biomass
- No agricultural feedstock needed
- Can be conducted on non-arable land
- Doesn’t need fresh water
- Produces fuel directly without the need for extraction or refinement
Apparently Joule has discovered some unique genes inside these microbes that produce the enzymes responsible for directly making the molecules found in diesel. From there, engineering organisms to make other fuels was a simple step. At this point, production of the fuels has only been done in the lab, but Joule has plans to open a pilot plant in early 2011.
Spotted in biofuels digest
Image credits:Â Â U.S. Geological Survey