Solazyme vs Joule Unlimited: Who's the Best?

Background: This is a Final Four (semi-final), match-up between Western Regional Champion Solazyne and Eastern Regional Champion Joule Unlimited, in the 2011 Transformative Technologies tourney, from Biofuels Digest.

Voting: Open to all Biofuels Digest subscribers. Voting links are in the Biofuels Digest daily newsletter. To subscribe (free), visit here.

The winner gets: Most votes advances to the Tournament Final, and a shot at the Championship.

The loser: Goes home.

Laurels: Solazyme is the 2nd ranked company in the 2010-11 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy poll. Joule is currently #22.

The match-up: Two synthetic biology companies with unusual and widely-praised technologies face off in this round. They combine superb biology with breakthroughs in engineering.

Joule defeated Qteros 53-47 in the Elite Eight quarterfinal, took 58 percent of the votes in its first round battle with Dupont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol, upset #2 seed KiOR 53-47 in the second round, and slipped by Mascoma 52-48 in the Sweet Sixteen.

Solazyme defeated OakBio in the first round, 79-21, easily handled Genomatica in round two, 62-38, and defeated Cobalt Technologies 55-45 in the Sweet Sixteen, and edged past OriginOil 51-49 in the Elite Eight quarterfinal.

Solazyme is coming off a series of partnership announcements with Roquette and others, and a celebrated IPO. It’s path of growing algae in the dark and producing renewable oils has seen the company sell out its capacity through 2015 as it scrambles to raise $$ to meet the demand. Solazyme took 79 percent of the vote in its first-round match-up against OakBio.

Joule has been running hot all year – heading for commercialization of its technology as soon as 2012 with a full-scale demonstration.

Deep dive data on Joule Unlimited

Joule Unlimited Technologies’ complete Hot 50 / Transformative Technologies profile is here.