Joule to Make Diesel at Solar Fuels Plant
Start-up Joule Unlimited plans to open a test facility later this year that will use micro-organisms, fed only sunlight and carbon dioxide, to make diesel fuel.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company, which changed its name from Joule Biotechnologies, said on Tuesday that it has secured $30 million to build the plant in Texas where it is already testing ethanol production. The money for this round came from existing funder Flagship Ventures as well as institutional and private investors.
Joule is a biotechnology company that has genetically engineered a photosynthetic micro-organism, which it has yet to disclose, to excrete hydrocarbons. Unlike biofuels processes, the company’s bioreactors don’t grow biomass that’s later converted–either by extracting oil from algae or using enzymes to make ethanol, for example–into a desired chemical. Instead, the micro-organisms grow in water, which is circulated through a closed vessel. The fuels are then separated from the solution.
Tags: 30 million, bioreactors, biotechnologies, biotechnology company, cambridge mass, carbon dioxide, diesel fuel, enzymes, ethanol production, flagship, hydrocarbons, micro organism, micro organisms, money, private investors, solar fuels, sunlight, test facilityComments Off
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