Watch our video
Why Joule?
Many technological alternatives to petroleum-based fuels have been explored, and with good reason. Limited energy supplies, pricing volatility and environmental concerns have converged to create one of the greatest challenges of our time. Joule® has an answer that surpasses biomass-derived fuels, channeling the sun's energy into a new, industry-changing category of direct solar fuels.
Joule is applying advanced genome engineering to develop a library of proprietary microorganisms, each one optimized for productivity according to the desired end product. Because the microorganisms are engineered to directly synthesize and secrete fuels, we will avoid costly and inefficient steps such as large-scale biomass production and collection, as well as downstream processing or refining. Our technology has already been proven with the direct conversion of CO2 to ethanol and diesel-range alkanes, avoiding the economic and environmental burden of multi-step, petroleum- or biomass-dependent methods.
Joule's integrated systems approach spans biology, process development, bioprocessing and engineering to ensure that our technology platform is commercial-ready. This includes development of our modular SolarConverter® system, which enables direct fuel and chemical production in a single-step, continuous process. It achieves high net energy gains while managing the photon capture, CO2 delivery and mixing, thermal management, product synthesis and initial separation in an efficient, direct-to-end-product™ process. The system is designed for ease of installation and expansion in modular increments, making it scalable and customizable to targeted output levels based on solar insolation, land and waste CO2 availability.
Joule's unique combination of genome and process engineering has enabled a technology platform that is capable of making multiple end products, including paraffinic alkanes that can be blended with conventional diesel in high concentrations and can also be refined to make renewable jet fuel. Our products will include Sunflow-E, Sunflow-D and value-added chemicals, directly targeting multi-billion dollar opportunities across the oil, chemical and consumer industries.
Joule's production process avoids the depletion of precious natural resources, with no dependence on agricultural land, crops or fresh water. At the same time, our use of industrial waste CO2 has the potential to help combat global warming.
The modular design of our SolarConverter system enables ease of scale from hundreds to thousands of acres with high, predictable productivities that off-set capital costs. In addition, Joule's readily-available inputs of sunlight, waste CO2 and non-potable water create the potential to meet massive demand without the scalability constraints that hinder biofuels.
Avoiding the use of raw material feedstocks dramatically simplifies Joule's production process, while also removing a costly component that can be subject to significant fluctuations in price and availability. Our process has the capability of achieving up to 100X the efficiencies of biofuel production, with a fraction of the land use. At full-scale commercial production, we ultimately target delivery of up to 25,000 gallons of Sunflow-E and 15,000 gallons of Sunflow-D per acre per year.
The efficiencies of Joule's process and system will allow us to meet or beat the costs of fossil fuels. We expect to deliver Sunflow-E and Sunflow-D for as little as $1.28/gallon and $50/bbl respectively, including capital costs and excluding subsidies.
Over three years into development, Joule has achieved a number of technical milestones related to our genome engineering toolkit, organisms, processes and systems. As a result we've developed a broad-based multifaceted IP estate covering core technologies and products. We currently hold 22 issued patents, 4 notices of allowance and 121 applications pending.
Joule's management team has a successful track record of bringing new technologies to market and creating significant shareholder value in IP-centric, multi-business unit models. Our Scientific Advisory Board, which includes renowned molecular geneticist George Church, contributes wide-ranging expertise in photosynthesis, systems biology, metabolic engineering, photonics, materials science, chemical and process engineering.