Joule Biotechnologies announces process to convert CO2 to fuel; scalable; 20,000 gallons per acre; parity with $50 oil

In Massachusetts, Joule Biotechnologies announced its Helioculture technology that uses sunlight to directly convert carbon dioxide into SolarFuel liquid energy. The company said that its process requires no agricultural land or fresh water, and is capable of producing more than 20,000 gallons of renewable ethanol or hydrocarbons per acre per year, and competes with $50 oil.

Joule said that its scalable SolarConverter technology uses photosynthetic organisms to catalyze the conversion of sunlight and CO2 to usable transportation fuels and chemicals.

The company said that, compared to algae- and cellulosic-based fuels, the Joule process does not have the costly biomass production, processing steps, scale-up risk or capital costs. The company added that its first fuel, SolarEthanol fuel, will be ready for commercial-scale development in 2010.

Joule has also demonstrated proof of concept for producing hydrocarbon fuel and expects process demonstration by 2011. The company was founded by Flagship Ventures in 2007.

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