Liquid Fuel...made from Sunlight and CO2

Joule Awarded Patent on Renewable Diesel Production from Sunlight and CO2 - Breakthrough process overcomes the costs and complexities of biomass-to-fuel​

14 Sept 2010
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Joule Unlimited, Inc., pioneer of Liquid Fuel from the Sun™, today announced the issuance of a U.S. patent covering its breakthrough conversion of sunlight and waste carbon dioxide (CO2) directly into liquid hydrocarbons that are fungible with conventional diesel fuel. Unlike biofuel processes that require costly intermediates such as sugar, algal or agricultural biomass, Joule is the first to achieve and patent a direct, single-step, continuous process for the production of hydrocarbon fuels requiring no raw material feedstocks – setting the stage for fossil fuel replacement at unprecedented efficiencies and costs as low as $30 per barrel equivalent.

U.S. Patent #7,794,969, titled “Methods and Compositions for the Recombinant Biosynthesis of n-Alkanes,” covers the use of engineered photosynthetic microorganisms for the direct synthesis of diesel molecules. Joule’s microorganisms function as biocatalysts that use only sunlight, waste CO2 and non-fresh water to directly and continuously produce diesel-range hydrocarbons, which are chemically distinct from biodiesel and are compatible with existing infrastructure.

This landmark achievement in industrial bioprocessing clears the path for large-scale renewable fuel production, addressing the cost, resource constraints and energy-intensive steps associated with biomass growth, harvesting, extraction and refining to reach an end product. The entire process produces more net energy than it consumes and yields sulfur-free, ultra-clean diesel.

“This patent award represents a critical milestone for our IP strategy and validates the truly revolutionary nature of our process, which has the potential to yield infrastructure-compatible replacements for fossil fuels at meaningful scale and highly-competitive costs, even before subsidies,” said Bill Sims, President and CEO, Joule.

“Our vision since inception has been to overcome the limitations of biomass-based technologies, from feedstock costs and logistics to inefficient, energy-intensive processing. The result is the world’s first platform for converting sunlight and waste CO2 directly into diesel, requiring no costly intermediates, no use of agricultural land or fresh water, and no downstream processing.”

Joule’s advances in biology are one critical aspect of the company’s integrated Helioculture™ platform, which also incorporates process, materials, photonic and thermal engineering to create an optimal system for the efficient production of fuels and chemicals. Joule’s novel SolarConverter™ system has been developed to maximize photon-to-fuel conversion efficiency, and features a modular, scalable design for ease of deployment, dependent only on land and waste CO2 availability. The integrated platform will enable productivities above any other closed-system approach, with a commercial target of 15,000 gallons of diesel per acre annually.

Joule has already proven the direct production of diesel, and will begin pilot production by the end of 2010. The company has also proven the direct production of ethanol via the same process at a rate of 10,000 gallons/acre/year, 40% of its ultimate productivity target, and pilot operations are underway in Leander, Texas.

Since inception Joule has pursued a strong IP position, operating in “stealth mode” for its first two years as patent applications were filed. Joule’s IP portfolio now includes two issued U.S. patents and numerous patent filings resulting from more than three years of on-going development, covering its core technologies, system and integrated process. The company’s first patent, U.S. Patent #7,785,861, “Hyperphotosynthetic Organisms,” relates to aspects of an engineered photosynthetic microorganism for fuel production, and was granted on August 31, 2010.


About Joule Unlimited, Inc.
Joule is pioneering the production of Liquid Fuel from the Sun™, surpassing today's barriers to abundant, sustainable, cost-competitive supply. Its transformational Helioculture™ platform converts sunlight and waste CO2 directly into liquid fuels in a continuous process that is not limited by costly biomass intermediates, processing or use of precious natural resources. This platform can yield renewable diesel fuel in unprecedented volumes with a fraction of the land use incurred by current methods, leapfrogging biomass-dependent approaches and eliminating the economic and environmental disadvantages of fossil fuels. Founded in 2007 by Flagship VentureLabs, Joule is privately held and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Additional information is available at www.jouleunlimited.com.

 

Basically they've bioengineered plant cells that produce diesel instead of sugar through photosynthesis. It's a clever design, but it remains to be seen if it will scale up to industrial proportions.

 

It is just another US patent application, that is all.

In other words,....Oh i have a great idea. I have no idea how to make it, no idea how it will work, no idea what it will really do in reality...BUT, it is a great idea. So, i'll get this as a patent right now, before, and just in case someone actually really does know what they are doing at some time in the future, so i can say.."it is my idea"..and "i want your money"…”my idea”…like a child in a school playground!

That is all.

Since this, like so many US patents, does not say really anything, other than, just claims:-

"...What is claimed is:
1. A method for producing hydrocarbons, comprising:


(i) culturing an engineered cyanobacterium in a culture medium, wherein said engineered cyanobacterium comprises a recombinant acyl ACP reductase (AAR) enzyme and a recombinant alkanal decarboxylative monooxygenase (ADM) enzyme; and

(ii) exposing said engineered cyanobacterium to light and carbon dioxide, wherein said exposure results in the conversion of said carbon dioxide by said engineered cynanobacterium into n-alkanes, wherein at least one of said n-alkanes is selected from the group consisting of n-tridecane, n-tetradecane, n-pentadecane, n-hexadecane, and n-heptadecane, and wherein the amount of said n-alkanes produced is between 0.1% and 5% dry cell weight and at least two times the amount produced by an otherwise identical cyanobacterium, cultured under identical conditions, but lacking said recombinant AAR and ADM enzymes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said recombinant enzymes is heterologous with respect to said engineered cyanobacterium.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said engineered cyanobacterium further produces at least one n-alkene or n-alkanol.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said engineered cyanobacterium produces at least one n-alkene or n-alkanol selected from the group consisting of n-pentadecene, n-heptadecene, and 1-octadecanol.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said n-alkanes comprise predominantly n-heptadecane, n-pentadecane or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising isolating at least one n-alkane, n-alkene or n-alkanol from said engineered cyanobacterium or said culture medium.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said enzymes are encoded by a plasmid.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said enzymes are encoded by recombinant genes incorporated into the genome of said engineered cyanobacterium.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said enzymes are encoded by genes which are present in multiple copies in said engineered cyanobacterium.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said enzymes are encoded by genes which are part of an operon, and wherein the expression of said genes is controlled by a single promoter...."

These type of patents really really stifles progress and breakthroughs. It is all about making money off the backs of others hard work. Should someone at some time in the future really achieve this, i feel sorry for them. All because someone has CLAIMED to have done it before…but that gets lost in the pathetic legal battles.

So what?...don't claim it, prove it!

 

I'm pretty sure these guys have at least a pilot scale plant (no pun intended) up and running. I've seen pictures of their process.

 

They probably do. But just as in many things in Naval Architecture, what works in models, when scaled up to full size doesn't.

A claim is one thing, but to prove it, in a real full-size operation, is a totally diffierent prospect all together.

We can all make claims, but to prove it and be peer reviewed ...well, that is when it really matters.

Ponds and Fleishman are the prime examples.

 

sunlight to make "waste CO2" into diesel oil? we call it "hemp"

Of course I'm just yanking chains even bring up the 'hemp' angle, but still....

this smacks of the whole GMO seed scam where the GMO some seeds and let them cross breed with all YOUR seeds, but according to patent law....

you are breaking the law and owe them big money.



http://www.google.com/search?client...&bih=688&q=hemp oil diesel&btnG=Google Search

 

Under the "If only" heading, I received a link about 3-4 days ago to an old news report about John Kanzius.

In an O/T reponse to this thread, I post here another link for anyone to comment upon. It should be noted that the electricity consumption is greater than the energy released by the process.

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Direct...es_Hydrogen_from_Salt_Water_Using_Radio_Waves

Let us hope his real work is continued.

Jan. 30, 2008

Paper > Intracellular gold nanoparticles enhance non-invasive radiofrequency thermal destruction of human gastrointestinal cancer cells - "We demonstrate that GNPs 1) have no intrinsic cytotoxicity or anti-proliferative effects in two human cancer cell lines in vitro and 2) GNPs release heat in a focused external RF field. This RF-induced heat release is lethal to cancer cells bearing intracellular GNPs in vitro." (Journal of Nanobiotechnology 2008, 6:2doi:10.1186/1477-3155-6-2)

The inventiveness of the human mind seems to have few limits.

P

 

I saw this on the TV some time ago. The problem then as is today and was mentioned earlier is that it has to be scaled up to be interesting to any investor.

It changed water into oil, I remember it being not all that simple but is certainly not a
''I have good idea" patent

However I doubt we will see it in our life time. The government needs the revenue from oil along with the unprecidented massive oil industry around the world.

As an example Saudi would need to wind down slowly--very slowly, It has little else to live on. As much as we may applaud that thought the whole world takes a revenue from oil.

So no cheap oil in our life time. Unless some renegade country started mas producing it with little care to world economy.

 

Still at it, I see.

 

This technology is actually working at small business scale. They are trying to see if the can scale it up to large factory production. Don't you all remember me putting a link to this up months ago in Boston's bio diesel thread? It had pictures of the green panels and we discussed it there? Guess Mark is right about the heavy smoking. Ha ha ha.

 

The snag is the land area needed to harvest enough solar energy to drive the process in sufficient volume. They don't say what their conversion efficiency is, but if we assume that these organisms can convert 50% of the sunlight falling on them into fuel, that the sun can shine on these organisms for 12 hours per day on average, at the equatorial insolation value of around 1000W per square metre, and if we also (with some optimism) assume that the diesel engine using this fuel can convert 40% of the energy in the fuel into useful power, then every square metre of growing vat or whatever that is exposed to sunlight will produce about 200 watts of usable power for 12 hours a day. This is comparable to the better solar panels around, about 20% overall efficiency.

The last set of figures I can find for US domestic diesel consumption is 190 billion litres per year. A litre of diesel holds about 9.7kWh, so the US consumes around 1.843 x 10^12 kWh of power each year from diesel fuel.

Working back to get the land area needed to supply this demand, using the 50% photosynthetic conversion factor , 12 hours per day insolation at 1000W per square metre means that to supply the domestic diesel needs of the US will require an area of around 7.372 x 10^12 square metres dedicated to these photosynthetic organisms, which is 737,200,000 hectares, located close enough to the equator to get 12 hours sunlight every day of the year.

Currently, the total area of arable land in the US is around 470,000,000 acres, or 190,202,561 hectares. So, just to meet the domestic diesel needs of the US will require nearly four times the current arable land area in the US, but situated somewhere near the equator. If we assume that this photosynthetic process is 100% efficient (which is highly unlikely) then we only need around double the current US arable land area.

Maybe someone needs to point out the flaws in the scheme proposed before too many investors get suckered in. It's a great idea, but relies on harnessing sunlight and that only has a certain amount of energy available to harvest.

 

Cat, I had not even pondered the feasability, and with that I could not have been more astute than Jeremy, but was only commenting on the conspiracy theory. I think people, in general, and people whos lives revolve around forums, in particular, give WAY too much credit to entities for one, being evil, and two, being smart enough to pull off suppression of supposed revolutionary information. The Pogue carburator didn't get stolen by GM as they wouldn't bother with "technology" that relies upon violating the first rule of thermodynamics to work. There is no over-unity device locked up in a vault by the US government. If you kill yourself at the precise time Hale-Bop reaches Earth perigee, you do not advance to a higher plane riding on it's tail.
Good day. "Happy Easter" to believers.
I lost 17 points to the first post, but with no signature - That's how I know my comments have an impact, thanks!

 

If more people managed to grasp the fundamental principle of the First Law of Thermodynamics then schemes like this one would be easier to see through.

Energy has to come from somewhere, in this case sunlight. It didn't take me more than ten minutes to to those rough calculations to show that the amount of sunlight that would need to be captured would need vast growing area. It's a pity that Joule Unlimited haven't done a bit more homework on the large scale viability of their process, or if they have that they've then chosen to be less than forthright in letting investors know about the land area problem.

Any biomass energy source faces the same basic problem, they all need vast areas to match present energy demand levels because all biomass systems rely on harevsting solar energy. There's no magic fix for this problem, we can't manufacture energy as even plants need to obey the First Law. We all have to adapt to the future energy shortage when fossil fuels run out by learning to get by on a small fraction of the energy we each use in future.

The fact that we use the term "fossil fuel" should give us a clue to the fact that we're using it far faster than it was created. It took millions of years of sunlight shining on a largely forested planet to create the oil, gas and coal that we will have managed to burn up in a couple of hundred years.

Jeremy

 

Jeremy: Your simple calculations confirm that "reality is a *****". Your observation, that resources created over eras are being consumed within a few hundred years, is further confirmation. That leads us to the inevitable conclusion that we have vastly and hopelessly overpopulated our little planet.

 

Gee, ya think so...?

-Tom