Scaling up: Joule funded for test tube biofuel
Startup Joule has secured the money to take its potentially breakthrough biofuel technology to a larger scale.
The company today announced that undisclosed private and institutional investors led a $70 million funding to build a larger demonstration plant. The announcement was made at the Technology Leaders in Future Energy conference in Abu Dhabi. Founding investor Flagship Ventures also joined the round.
Founded in 2007, Joule took a clean-sheet approach to making biofuels which now are primarily made from corn or sugar cane. Its process uses a genetically engineered version of cyanobacteria to produce diesel or ethanol using only sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and nutrients.
The fuel-making microbes grow in a solution in specially designed solar panel-like bioreactors. Carbon dioxide, which can come from a polluting source such as a power plant, is piped into the collectors and as microbes grow, the fuel they create is separated and collected.
Joule’s bioreactors at a pilot site in Texas. Microbes fed sunlight, CO2 and nutrients directly secrete diesel fuel. (Credit: Joule)
This technology is potentially a huge boon for the energy industry. We desperately need to find a source of energy that can compete with and eventually replace our dependence on oil.