Solar power has a liquid affair & this time without algae

Often, solar power and algae go hand in hand when experts talk about creating energy from the sun. That’s because algae natively produces outputs as it processes sunlight which can be repurposed into liquid fuels. Joule Biotechnologies Inc. wants to change that though by skirting the need for algae or cellulosic materials.

The company has just emerged from a veil of secrecy and is talking up its ability to directly translate sunlight into fuel using “highly-engineered photosynthetic organisms.” This theoretically would remove a step from the process, introducing cost savings and efficiencies.

Joule Biotechnologies claims that its photosynthetic organisms will produce “. . . 20,000 gallons of renewable ethanol or hydrocarbons per acre annually,” according to its press release. It expects the fuel to cost the equivalent of $50 per barrel with current subsidies in place.

A sense of urgency is driving the company’s efforts because its focused on supplying fuel for the US Renewable Standard Program, which demands increasing levels of biomass-based diesel and cellulosic fuel. Essentially that means mixing increasing amounts of renewable fuel sources into the overall supply.

Debate is still frequent on how much naturally occurring oil is left for us to harvest, and Peter Schwartz, former head of scenario planning at Royal Dutch Shell argues that only the cheap oil is gone. We still may have many years of deeper, slightly more expensive oil available. Of course, that requires a comfort with digging deeper into the Earth and manipulating various environments in big ways.

Regardless of how much oil is left underground, Joule Biotechnologies has another card to play: carbon dioxide is required to catalyze the energy production. The company is highlighting the synergies of creating energy while simultaneously cleaning out air pollution. “Joule’s transformative Helioculture process leverages highly-engineered photosynthetic organisms to catalyze the conversion of sunlight and CO2 to usable transportation fuels and chemicals.”

That’s a compelling argument for a seemingly efficient system. But, many startup companies right now are focused on the renewable energy space, and all of them are proposing big changes. A model of this technology in action is critical to building credibility.