21 May, 2010
The goal is to use sunlight and waste CO2 to produce renewable diesel and ethanol from algae. Joule Unlimited, a Massachusetts-based company, believes they have the key to reaching this goal. In June, Joule will launch a pilot plant near Austin, Texas growing algae in large glass panels.
The goal is to use sunlight and waste CO2 to produce renewable diesel and ethanol from algae. Joule Unlimited, a Massachusetts-based company, believes they have the key to reaching this goal. In June, Joule will launch a pilot plant near Austin, Texas growing algae in large glass panels.The company has developed single-cell organism expressly for the purpose of creating fuel. Joule’s algae plants soak up sunlight and secrete oils, which are flushed out of the panel system using water. From there, the oils are separated from water to eventually refine into diesel and ethanol fuel.
The pilot production plant is slated to reach full commercial production by 2012–and Joule estimates 25,000 gallons of ethanol a year form each acre in production.
Eventually, such fuel production facilities will be located near power plants or ethanol production facilities to capture and use carbon dioxide emissions to feed the algae. Read more about Joule’s pilot plant from the New York Times.
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