We’ve written about biofuels, and we’ve written about solar power, but Joule Biotechnology is trying to combing these two very different concepts.
The company emerged from stealth mode today, touting its “Helioculture” system that it claims can turn sunlight, carbon dioxide and some kind of proprietary organism into Ethanol. Now that’s some kind of secret sauce!
The basic process seems to be based on photosynthesis, and though the company hasn’t released all the details, it’s clearly an intriguing concept. Joule claims it has developed a “photosynthetic organism” that uses the energy in sunlight to “metabolize” carbon dioxide to create a variety of fuel products.
Joule says its first commercial product, SolarEthanol, will be ready for commercial production next year.
The system requires open space, but can be anywhere, and doesn’t displace any land that can be used for crops. Nor does it need fresh water. And unlike other types of Ethanol that need to be refined from various source crops, the end product of the Helioculture process is SolarEthanol – no need for additional steps. Just pour sunlight into one end of the process and fuel comes pouring out the other end.
Wow, we’re dying to know more about how this works.
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