Game Changers or Investment Seekers?

by Aaron Thalwitzer

Back in September 2010, I wrote about a single bacterium that could theoretically produce a hydrocarbon with the potential to replace or supplement petroleum. Massachusetts biotech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent last September for this genetically engineered cyanobacterium, and claims that it can deliver fuel at the equivalent of $30 a barrel of crude oil.

Now, Joule has upped the ante, claiming that they have a “library” of fossil-fuel creating organisms in its lab. They claim that each of theseorganisms can produce a different fuel (e.g. gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel). Joule says that their ideas will lead to “fossil fuels on demand.”

But these aren’t “biofuels,” at least not like the mostly corn-based ethanol we’re now pumping into our tanks. Joule’s organism requires to biomass — none.  The organisms requires only carbon dioxide, water (salt or fresh!) and sunshine to manufacture crude. Joule describes the process as nothing short of  “artificial photosynthesis.”

Joule claims to have produced ethanol at a rate equivalent to 10,000 U.S. gallons an acre a year. If scaled up this could equal roughly 800 barrels of crude an acre a year, over twice the ethanol yield as we currently get from an acre of corn.

According to the Globe:

Joule says its “solar converter” technology makes the manufacture of liquid fossil fuels 50 times as efficient as conventional biofuel production – and eliminates as much as 90 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions. “Requiring only sunlight and waste C0{-2},” it says, “[this] technology can produce virtually unlimited quantities of fossil fuels with zero dependence on raw materials, agricultural land, crops or fresh water. It ends the hazards of oil exploration and oil production. It takes us to the unthinkable: liquid hydrocarbons on demand.”

Joule has been highly secretive, but perhaps for good reason.  CEO Bill Sims has said, “Some time soon,” he said, “what we are doing will become clear.”

Perhaps, but bold claims have been made before. Scaling to commercial production is arguably the hardest part of any biotech reactor setup. Outside the lab, the organisms must survive incidental bio-contamination, survive in high-waste-product concentration and variable temperatures long enough to produce economical amounts of fuel. Fixing all these problems can take as long as the initial research and grind away at investment.

Additionally, consider the following (at your own peril):

1. The energy contained in 15,000 gallons of biodiesel ~= 10,000 gallons x 133,000 BTU/gallon x .000293 kwh/BTU = 0.58 MM kwh.
2. The energy falling on one acre of land in the tropics ~= 5kwh/m2/day x 365 days/year x 4046 m2/acre = 7.4 MM kwh/year/acre.
3. Joule claims they can capture 8% of all solar energy falling on each acre of land (assuming they are in the tropics and not in the continental United States).
4. The efficiency limit for photosynthesis is around 14% (or lower), which isn’t calculated on a per-acre basis, but on a molecular exposure basis. Even if you could cover each acre with pure chlorophyll, the conversion efficiency would not exceed 14%.
5. Joule is claiming they can exceed 50% of the theoretical photosynthetic limit after all the energy and efficiency loss of processing, for a net yield of 15,000 gallons.

A 1000-1500 gallon yield seems more realistic. Joule’s claims raise some questions and leave me wondering whether this isn’t a pump-and-dump green stock scam. Nevertheless, I sincerely hope that Joule is right.