Joule Biotech comes out of stealth with sun-powered fuel

A Cambridge, Mass.-based bioengineering startup has come out of stealth today with a technology to make a substitute for petroleum fuel that doesn't require land or water. 

Joule Biotechnologies was personally founded by Flagship Ventures CEO Noubar Afeyan and Partner Dr. David Berry, breaking from the typical venture capitalist role of incubating, Berry told the Cleantech Group.

Joule has spent more than two years developing its potentially breakthrough Helioculture technology—a process that uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into the company’s SolarFuel liquid energy in a SolarConverter device. 

“It’s the above-ground equivalent to the Middle East,” Berry said.

“The SolarConverter captures the sun and is fed carbon dioxide and combine inside where a solution of brackish water and nutrients exist with photosynthetic organisms—secreting the SolarFuel,” Joule’s CEO Bill Sims said, describing the end-product as a hydrocarbon-based fuel, not a biofuel.

The unique direct-to-product conversion process doesn’t require land or freshwater, Sims said. He added that the system is capable of producing more than 20,000 gallons of renewable ethanol or hydrocarbons per acre annually—which exceeds production levels of current alternatives and rivals fossil fuel costs. Biomass-derived biofuels, such as algae and cellulose-based forms, face challenges including costly biomass production, numerous processing steps, scale-up risk and capital costs (see Turning algae into ethanol, and gold, and Dow, Algenol to build pilot algae-based biorefinery).

“We believe this is a viable solution for energy independence from biofuels,” Sims said.

The company has moved its technology outside the lab to a sunny, undisclosed U.S. location, and holds north of 60 patents.

“We were waiting [to emerge from stealth] until we could prove it was possible at the lab scale,” Berry said. “We wanted to make sure we had a strong competitive edge.”

George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, sits on Joule’s scientific advisory board. He said the hydrocarbon and alcohol-based fuel is expected to be compatible with current engines, such as diesel and gasoline, because the company can tailor the mixture.

“As a citizen and a scientist, it’s a breath of fresh air. Everyone has been waiting for it,” Church said. “We need this for the world, and we would like to be the ones that did it.”

Sims said the company expects its SolarEthanol fuel to be ready for development in 2010, with a pilot plant in the first quarter, followed by a commercial-scale facility in late 2011/early 2012. The company hasn’t yet released a price point on its SolarConverter, Sims said.

Sims said there are a number of potential business models for Joule’s technology. The company could have its own commercial facility selling into distributor channels. It could license the technology or use original equipment manufacturer. It could also provide strains of the organism to customers, which would have customized SolarConverters on site. 

Potential customers include CO2 emitters looking for solutions to lower greenhouse gas emissions, such as coal-fired plants, oil companies, those that distribute emissions, and ag-chemical companies.  

Sims said ExxonMobil’s deal earlier this month to spend $600 million to develop biofuels from algae, including more than half to La Jolla, Calif.-based biotech firm Synthetic Genomics, indicates even Exxon is interested in clean fuels (see ExxonMobil devotes $600M to algal biofuel project with Synthetic Genomics).

Joule has received an undisclosed amount of funding to date from institutional and private investors as well as employees. Flagship Ventures also wouldn’t disclose the amount it contributed. Joule has fewer than 30 employees, which include biologists specializing in synthetic biology and engineers.

Sims said Joule isn’t looking for formal funding, but a future round will eventually help to fund the company’s 2010 efforts and scalability. The company is open to joint ventures or partners to grow and possibly access the public markets, Sims said.

He added that the company hasn’t received any government funding but is in the process of applying for U.S. stimulus funds. Joule has also applied for $10 million in grants for its piloting activities through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

Potential competitors include South San Francisco, Calif.-based advanced biofuel maker LS9, which starts out with ag waste, and San Diego-based Genomatica, which uses biotechnology to convert feedstock into existing intermediate chemicals (see LS9’s clean diesel meets U.S., Brazilian requirements and LS9, latest Khosla investment, gets $5M and Biorefineries alive and well, say experts). In contrast, Joule starts from photons and carbon dioxide. 

“I’m very excited about any green or biological renewable to petroleum,” Church said. “Clearly corn-to-ethanol was something a lot of people felt was doomed from the beginning. LS9 was filling a pretty gigantic niche, but photons and carbon dioxide to renewable fuel is even better.”

He highlighted one of the pioneers in the field, GreenFuel Technologies, whose high-yield algae farms recycled carbon dioxide from flue gases to produce biofuels. Church said the company addressed the bioreactor design but didn’t use genetic engineering and wasn’t able to achieve the process inexpensively. The company closed its doors in May after running out of money (see Biofuel from algae startup on shaky ground and Off-grid and out of touch).

“Joule has a good, inexpensive module solar converter physical plant plan, which is probably better than the pioneer GreenFuel. And it’s synthetic biology is as good or better than Genomatica and LS9. Genomatica and LS9 aren’t using photosynthesis,” he said.

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