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 organisms, each one optimized for productivity according to the desired end product. Because the organisms are engineered to directly synthesize and secrete fuels, we will avoid costly steps such as large-scale biomass production and collection or other downstream refinement. Our technology has already been proven with the direct conversion of CO2 to liquid hydrocarbons and ethanol, avoiding the economic and environmental burden of multi-step, petroleum- or biomass-dependent methods.
Joule incorporates process, materials, photonic and thermal engineering to make our Helioculture™platform commercial-ready. Unlike any other closed system approach, our modular SolarConverter® system is designed for direct fuel 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, minimizing the steps to market. The system's interconnected assemblies are designed for ease of installation, making it scalable and customizable to any desired output levels based on land and 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 liquid hydrocarbons that are fungible with existing diesel fuel and can also be refined to make renewable jet fuel and gasoline. Our products will include ultra clean diesel, ethanol and commodity chemicals, directly targeting multi-billion dollar opportunities in the oil, chemical, consumer and agricultural industries.
Joule's production process avoids the depletion of precious natural resources, with no dependency on agricultural land, crops or fresh water. At the same time, an independently-conducted lifecycle analysis shows that, through our intake of waste CO2, we have the potential to reduce harmful carbon emissions on a large scale – up to 90% in some instances.
The modular design of our SolarConverter system enables ease of scale from tens 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 project delivery of up to 15,000 gallons of diesel and 25,000 gallons of ethanol 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 diesel and ethanol for as little as $20/bble and $0.60/gallon respectively, including currently available 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 12 issued patents and 70+ 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.