Greentech Lead America: Joule announced a new method in renewable fuel production: the direct conversion of waste CO2Â into the essential components of gasoline and jet fuel.
The technology allows Joule to expand its Sunflow product line and help address global demand for true hydrocarbon fuel replacements. The process uses waste CO2 as a feedstock, allowing industrial emitters to produce valuable fuels rather than discard emissions or employ costly measures for capture and sequestration.
With its latest breakthrough, Joule becomes the first company able to directly produce medium-chain hydrocarbons which are substantial components of gasoline (Sunflow-G) and jet fuel (Sunflow-J).
To date, renewable hydrocarbon-based fuel substitutes have required the complex, multi-step conversion of algal or other agricultural biomass feedstocks into fuel pre-cursors, and subsequent chemical upgrading.
In contrast, Joule has engineered photosynthetic biocatalysts that convert waste CO2Â into hydrocarbons through a patented, continuous process. Joule has been successfully scaling its process for making ethanol (Sunflow-E) while also developing long-chain hydrocarbons for diesel (Sunflow-D).
Joule’s solar technology enables production of renewable fuels that can supplant meaningful amounts – not small fractions – of fossil-derived gasoline and jet fuel.
Joule’s hydrocarbon fuels have the additional benefit of being inherently sulfur-free. For the diesel and gasoline markets, this gives refiners the ability to meet sulfur content requirements without raising production costs or fuel prices.
As just announced on March 29, 2013, the US Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to further reduce the sulfur content of gasoline by more than 60% beginning in 2017, requiring significant capital cost of $10 billion and additional annual operating cost of $2.4 billion for refiners, according to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM).
Instead, Joule Sunflow-G would seamlessly cut sulfur content by comprising a substantial portion of the final product.
Joule is now commercializing its first product, Sunflow-E, for global availability in early 2015. Construction of the company’s first commercial plants is planned to begin in 2014 in multiple locations worldwide, requiring only adequate sunlight, access to waste CO2 and non-potable water.