Jan 23 2010
Joule Biotechnologies has signed a lease agreement to build its first pilot plant in Leander, Texas. The transformative system will be further developed and tested by the company to study its capability for producing renewable solar fuels. This system, which does not require expensive feedstock or processing steps and powered by sunlight, is being engineered to overshadow the cost efficiencies, scale and productivities of biomass-dependent approaches. The plant is expected to be functional within the first half of the year 2010 and the site was selected for its convenient location and high solar insolation feature.
Bill Sims, CEO and President of Joule Biotechnologies, remarked that the company is interested in moving on to the next step with the pilot-scale development of its renewable solar fuels following the completion of its progress in the lab and its outdoor testing. The company’s advances in systems processing, bioprocessing and genome engineering has enabled it to create a new platform for the production of direct solar fuels that includes diesel and ethanol. Sims stated that the company is currently provided with the opportunity to test and optimize its processes on a larger scale and this in turn motivates the company to improve its productivity targets besides being able to demonstrate the ease with which the transformative system can scale up.
Joule’s process, in comparison with many other existing and upcoming approaches to produce renewable fuel, accomplishes a high net energy balance and avoids the harmful depletion of fresh water, crops or fertile land. This accomplishment is brought about by the company’s Helioculture technology, which influences the genome-engineered organisms and abundant solar energy to convert waste carbon dioxide into chemicals and solar fuels. The continuous production process does not require costly processing, biomass intermediates and removes resource limitations.
End products, such as ethanol, will be tested at the company’s facility in Leander. Joule’s SolarConverter system comprises a number of product-specific organisms to produce chemicals and solar fuels through the same process. The production of diesel and ethanol at lab scale has already been achieved by Joule Biotechnologies. Through future commercial sites, the company forecasts the potential to deliver 25,000 gallons/acre/year of ethanol and 15,000 gallons/acre/year of diesel at extremely competitive market pricing.
Source: http://www.joulebio.com/