Green Tech Co. Says It Has a Secret: A Fuel-Producing Wonder Organism

[one...two...tree 2,762]

A startup biotechnology company unveiled its grand plans for a new energy source yesterday–although it didn’t share a few crucial details. The company, Joule Biotechnologies, says it has genetically engineered an organism that can efficiently produce unprecedented amounts of liquid fuel. However, chief executive Bill Sims will not reveal what that marvelous organism is. “If I tell you what the organism is, I’m inviting everyone else to take part in a transformational, evolutionary, game-changing technology” [Boston Globe], he says. The company’s announcement comes soon after both ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical announced their investments in algae-derived biofuel production, and Joule’s technology has some similarities with those two projects. Like both those algae projects, Joule says it won’t be harvesting a plant and squeezing the oil out of it; instead the organism will secrete the fuel. But Sims says his organisms aren’t algae. In addition, Sims said the organisms do not need fresh water but can be grown in both brackish water or graywater, which is nonindustrial waste water from sources like baths and washing machines [Reuters].

Using a process that the company dubs “helioculture,” sunlight and carbon dioxide interact with the photosynthetic organisms, Sims says; as an added bonus, the carbon dioxide used could be the emissions from a factory or power plant. Sims says the organisms secrete the chemical equivalent of ethanol. “A large project would look much like a solar array,” Sims explained. “Instead of converting the sun’s heat energy into electrons, we’re using it to create liquid fuels” [Greenwire]. The company claims it can generate 20,000 gallons of fuel per year from every acre of “solar converter” panels, which is far more than other companies expect to produce. Exxon’s algae project, for example, aims to generate about 2,000 gallons per acre.

The company’s bullish projections have garnered plenty of attention, but also ample skepticism. Joule hopes to build a pilot plant next year, and a commercial-scale plant by 2012. That’s the same kind of ambitious timeline that has marked an awful lot of next-generation biofuel projects in recent years—projects that almost uniformly have failed to live up their hype. In contrast, Exxon—which has a few more years experience in the fuels business—figures it will take them “five to ten years” to get even small-scale plants up and running [The Wall Street Journal, blog].

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/28/green-tech-co-says-it-has-a-secret-a-fuel-producing-wonder-organism/

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Yay!! Energy diversity rules!!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Sounds like something that might be pretty good! Hopefully not too good to be true!

[NickD 203]

While I never subscribed to Discovery Science magazine, for some reason, I am getting it. Never sure if I am reading science or science fiction, but certainly their energy articles share a commonality, incomplete while overwhelmingly optimistic.

So on this one, inputting CO2, sunlight, and a proprietary secret ingredient to output, assumingly a combustible fuel, well carbon and oxygen are certainly combustible. But to accomplish 100% combustion with carbon is not possible with CO as one of the very harmful byproducts and the remaining unburnt carbon leaves a mess. What the hell is a solar chemical? Is that something with half life of a zillion years that causes cancer in rats in California?

You do get some energy value from a Discovery Science magazine, but half to rip out one page at a time and flip that in your fireplace, otherwise you have a mess. Or can recycle it where tons of bleach is required to clean up all that ink causing a different form of pollution. Have yet to read one article yet that makes sense, and if these discoveries are so great, why aren't these companies applying for a patent?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Its The Blob, isn't it...

[Ban Hammer 13,366]

they've patented soylent green and cars get double the mpg.

[HAL 9000 96]

Communist Oxygen atoms on CO2, Steven.

[almaty 19]

Communist Oxygen atoms on CO2, Steven.

cool..check our patent

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[HAL 9000 96]

Communist Oxygen atoms on CO2, Steven.

cool..check our patent

Some people, in order to avoid using Communist O2, are breathing in Stupid Chlorine gas. The resulting exhalations give out Carbon Tet (tratrachloride). It is gradually driving them insane.

Edited July 31, 2009 by HAL 9000

[almaty 19]

Communist Oxygen atoms on CO2, Steven.

cool..check our patent

Some people, in order to avoid using Communist O2, are breathing in Stupid Chlorine gas. The resulting exhalations give out Carbon Tet (tratrachloride). It is gradually driving them insane.

also, has effected the right wingnuts...

[HAL 9000 96]

O seriously... that Carbon Tet was some really nasty stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if the more hysterical elements have been exposed to it chronically at some point of their lives.