Articles tagged with: 4th generation biofuels
(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Solar-to-Fuel System Recycles CO2 to Make Ethanol and Ethylene — Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert carbon …
by Wendy Wolfson (University of California Irvine Applied Innovation) In a high-ceiling room in professor Markus Ribbe’s lab, a giant still emits pungent vapors from fermenting bacteria. Ribbe, chancellor’s professor of molecular biology and biochemistry …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) One of the more striking outcomes from the DOE Bioeconomy 2017 conference in Washington DC was confirmation of the demise of Joule Unlimited. “We had a lot of prospects last …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … There’s been the cellulosic wave, then waste — and alongside there has been steady progress in what are known as the electrofuels. These are fuels made directly from CO2, water …
by Mark Schwartz (Stanford News) Most of the fuel additive ethanol used in the U.S. is made from corn. But new research reveals that copper can turn carbon dioxide into ethanol without using corn or …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Arizona State’s Wim Vermaas gave this illuminating overview of Direct Photosynthetic Production of Biodiesel by Decoupled Cyanobacteria at the 2017 DOE Project Peer Review sessions. READ MORE
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Capturing and concentrate (ambient) CO2 at low prices for direct use and production of fuels and chemicals, using solar or wind energy. That’s Antecy. With the help of an organic, non-amine …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Of all the many wonders at the Algae Biomass Summit this week, perhaps there was nothing more interesting in terms of the Department of Energy’s laudable attention to the sector …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Joule is advancing a production platform for Liquid Fuel from the Sun, expected to eclipse the scale, productivity and cost efficiency of any known alternative to fossil fuel today. Its …
by Kevin G. Hall (McClatchyDC) Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief once opened doors at home and abroad for an alternative energy firm whose investors include a Vladimir Putin-supported Russian company.
These ties were highlighted last week when …
by David Dittman (Wall Street Daily) … ClimateWire recently reported that scientists have engineered a bacterium that can turn carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuel in a single, enzyme-catalyzed metabolic step.
Summarizing a paper published on August 22, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Joule is advancing a production platform for Liquid Fuel from the Sun, expected to eclipse the scale, productivity and cost efficiency of any known alternative to fossil fuel today. Its …
(Joule/BusinessWire) EPA Qualifies Joule Ethanol Under Clean Air Act — Joule, the pioneer of drop-in liquid fuels from recycled CO2, today announced major accomplishments in the first quarter of 2016 that are accelerating the commercialization …
(GreenCarCongress) Researchers from the Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences have identified and characterized the first thermophilic bacterium capable (Defluviitalea phaphyphila) of direct …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) One of these days your personal transportation system might look like this. A solar or wind energy facility generates renewable electricity, which is converted into a solar fuel using electrofuel …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Joule is advancing a production platform for Liquid Fuel from the Sun, expected to eclipse the scale, productivity and cost efficiency of any known alternative to fossil fuel today. Its …
by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine) For eight years, Joule has been working under the radar to develop and commercialize its CO2-to-fuel technology. — When it comes to ethanol production volumes per acre of land, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Maryland, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued patent number 9,217,161for a process to ferment biomass or gases directly to hydrocarbons like hexane and octane. The process belongs to …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The quest for affordable, sustainable, point-sourced CO2 brings Joule to Germany and the cement business. Here’s the how and why.
Most of the time, power plants get the attention when it …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Switzerland, 11 leading low carbon fuel companies present a comprehensive guide that identifies a variety of available and accessible low carbon fuel solutions.
…
Today, only 3% of transportation fuels are low …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) For a number of years, readers all over the world have been following the fortunes of Joule Unlimited, in and out of stealth, and its goal of making hydrocarbons directly …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In the terrestrial world, oxygen is colorless, odorless, and try to get through an hour without some. In the Bioeconomy Cinematic Universe, oxygen is harder than steel, heavier than a …
by Robert F. Service (Science Magazine) Stuart Licht has designed the ultimate recycling machine. The solar reactor that he and colleagues built in his lab at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., takes carbon dioxide (CO2) …
by Robert F. Service (Science Magazine) Liquid fuels aren’t the only things made from oil. Chemical companies start with oil to make thousands of different products, including plastics and pharmaceuticals. Most of these other commodities are …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Unlimited oil production, no exploration risk, positive on environment, cheaper than unconventional US crude — what’s not to like about certain biofuels?
This year, Joule Unlimited noted that a “10,000 acre …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) No fossil fuel, no biomass, low carbon, no kidding. — … The top 10 new technologies.
Note: Some amazing technologies such as Industrial Microbes, Trelys, Kiverdi and Mango Materials fell outside the …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) 1. Who are Joule? Joule is advancing a production platform for Liquid Fuel from the Sun, expected to eclipse the scale, productivity and cost efficiency of any known alternative to …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Who are they? “Nature’s biodiversity holds answers to challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more,” they say. “Organism Engineers at Ginkgo learn from Nature to develop new organisms that …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Drop-in Hydrocarbon fuels made directly by plants? Here. we look at the science and risks of turning an “ability” into an “industrial reality”.
It’s common knowledge that terrestrial plants (and many …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Massachusetts, Joule, the pioneer of liquid fuels from recycled CO2, announced the issuance of an additional patent on the direct, continuous production of hydrocarbon fuels – extending its ability …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Fuels, chemicals, pathways, and microbes that could shake it all up … (H)ere are 8 Hot Targets that we can point to that could be game-changers in the world of making …
by Kelly Taylor (Chronicle Herald) … Still, ethanol does have some advantages, including lower net greenhouse gas emissions due to its recycling of carbon-dioxide emitted by today’s plants (or factories), as opposed to oil, which is …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Massachusetts, the remarkable journey of Joule Unlimited towards commercial-scale continued to add exciting chapters with the news that the company has closed on $40 million in private equity …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Though challenges remain, particularly in affordable feedstock, the US National Research Council says “Despite impressive recent and projected growth, the manufacturing of chemicals using biological synthesis and engineering could expand …
by Mark Hay (Good Magazine) At some point in your life, Escherichia coli has probably brought you to your knees topray to the porcelain god. Common bacteria that often live harmlessly in the guts of …
by Santhosh Muthalath (Oman Observer) The production of liquid fuels from biological material or ‘biomass’ is gaining popularity across the world. Factors such as climate change, rising fuel prices, political instability and depletion of petroleum …
(Audi) New Audi activity in the development of CO2-neutral fuels; Pilot plant for e-diesel production opened in Dresden; Audi partnership with Climeworks and sunfire
Audi is active in the development of CO2-neutral, synthetic fuels. The latest project is …
by Martin LaMonica (Xconomy) The list of advanced biofuel companies that failed to live up to their ambitions is long and discouraging. Joule Unlimited, though, appears to be making progress despite the headwinds of skeptical investors …
by Alan Ohnsman (Bloomberg) …Mimicking the way plants turn sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air into energy and oxygen, the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at the California Institute of Technology is in a race to …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Upstream, downstream, processing, policy, finance – opportunities and challenges abound in the bioeconomy – but which challenges are the most intractable and daunting of them all? In today’s part 2, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Using just CO2, sunlight and water – and some math right off Einsteins’ blackboard — researchers come up with a potential game-changing technology for making renewable fuels.
The National Science Foundation’s …
by Erin Voegele (Biomass Magazine) On April 23 Joule Unlimited announced it was selected as a 2013 Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The award aims to recognize game-changing clean energy companies. …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …One of the perplexities of our time: why solar systems are so photon-efficient and so troubled in energy storage; conversely, how biomass systems are so photon-inefficient yet have magnificently dense …
by Lidija Grozdanic (Inhabitat.com) …Scientists Daniel Bond, Zarath Summers and Jeffrey Gralnick of the University of Minnesota’s BioTechnology Institute used the co-called electrochemical cultivation to grow iron-oxidizing bacteria without any presence of iron. By adding …
by Bob Brooks (Automotive Industries) It was announced in September 2012 that Audi and Joule Unlimited had formed a joint effort to commercialize Joule’s unique synthetic diesel & ethanol fuel technology based on microorganisms (www.jouleunlimited.com). …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The first patent issued out of ARPA-E’s electrofuels program suggests that this technology class is heading for the short-list of “next big thing” in energy conversations.
…Or, that participants were aware …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Brent Crude trades this past week at a transorbital $109 per barrel (West Texas Intermediate at a suborbital, if high, $85). It puts the conventional wisdom that biofuels are too …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Are they biofuels? We think so – even if they are post-biomass. They do what organisms have done for eons to make biomass in the first place: convert lifeless CO2, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Every great biofuels technology has its own companion feedstock strategy – with unique advantages and technical challenges. Who’s got what it takes to be a great Sherpa, providing that feedstock …
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Ethanol Producer Magazine) Scientists at the U.S. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory have demonstrated a better way to use photosynthesis to produce ethylene, a breakthrough that could change the way materials, chemicals, …
(Oregon State University) Diatoms, tiny marine life forms that have been around since the dinosaurs, could finally make biofuel production from algae truly cost-effective – because they can simultaneously produce other valuable products such as …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Massachusetts, Joule announced the commissioning of its first SunSprings demonstration plant in Hobbs, New Mexico, where the company will prove its scalable platform for solar fuel production – the …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Fewer people know that natural gas is a platform for producing ethanol – either through fermentation or catalytic conversion (typically via methanol) – and drop-in fuels using the methanol-to-gasoline method …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …But some of the most interesting work being done today at Joule Unlimited is of the “Don’t Bee” type: progressively knocking out characteristics and pathways that create limitations on biofuels …
by Dan Krotz (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Berkeley Lab-led team explores a way to create biofuels, minus the photosynthesis
Is there a new path to biofuels hiding in a handful of dirt? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley …
by James Stafford (OilPrice.com) Rising geopolitical tensions and high oil prices are continuing to help renewable energy find favour amongst investors and politicians. Yet how much faith should we place in renewables to make up …
by Bob Brooks (Automotive Industries) Possibly the most innovative new synthetic fuel, developed by privately financed Joule Unlimited, has proven the cost effectiveness of its system during 18 months at a pilot plant in Arizona. …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) New ideas on growing hydrocarbons directly in the field tap ancient ideas of agriculture, and ancient capabilities trapped deep in the genome
…A good part of the work of modern genetics …
(Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati) The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recently released three Requests for Information (RFIs) related to more than $100 million in anticipated future funding opportunities. The RFIs encourage …
by Clive Cookson (Financial Times) Scottish scientists have found a more efficient way to make biofuels, using electricity rather than sunlight.
Their “electric leaf” is based on photosynthetic bacteria whose biochemistry has been changed through radical …
(US Department of Energy) The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration to inform the possible development of future chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production programs. Information obtained may be used …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … When it comes down to it, a living organism such as a plant is an incredibly sophisticated next-gen solar panel, harvesting light as well as CO2, water and nutrients …
by Megan Kamerick (New Mexico Business Weekly) …The JTIP board approved $263,542.58 for Joule Unlimited to create 20 jobs. The company is building the first phase of its commercial plant in Hobbs on land owned by the state …
by by Kevin Robinson-Avila (New Mexico Business Weekly) Algae ponds are starting to color New Mexico’s desert landscape green.
Sapphire Energy Inc., which uses a proprietary process to turn algae oil into renewable gasoline to replace fossil …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …So, along comes Joule. It’s a known fact that some microorganisms could be modified or evolved to ferment gaseous carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide. Combine that with some hydrogen taken …
by Pavel Molchanov (Raymond James) As energy investors know well, it is much better to own the oil than to refine it. In other words, the bulk of the value is in the upstream of the …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …But the New Agriculture has arisen in recent years, with new solutions to the old dilemma: how do you produce, and afford, and haul, and utilize enough feedstock to make …
(IFP Energies Nouvelles) The numerous research programmes looking at new-generation biofuels that were initiated over the last ten years are now starting to bear fruit. Although no plants are producing and
marketing biofuels yet, the large-scale, industrial …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Your calls and emails are always the highlight of our days. Most questions can be answered johnny-on-the-spot. Some are still out there and well worth arguing over. Here are the …
by Robert F. Service (Science Magazine) Electricity is difficult to store on a large scale, making the effort to store sunlight’s energy in chemical fuels one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. Today the …
by Vidya Ramanathan (Advanced Biofuels USA) A clear view of coppery miniature treetops, brilliant skies and shimmering coastline. This is the sight that welcomed the attendees of the first ever conference on ElectroFuels, conducted by the …
(Ventura County Star/AP) … Joule Unlimited Inc. plans to convert sunlight and carbon dioxide waste into biofuel at the planned facility in Hobbs. The plant is expected to begin operations in 2012.
…State officials say Joule …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Does continuous harvest, and direct production from CO2 and water, offer a transformative, no-kill way to improve the carbon and dollar economics of biofuels? Can the dairy model work?
…In beef …
by Vidya Ramanathan (Advanced Biofuels USA) “Artificial leaf, Nanowires and Biomass – Are these the fuels and technologies of the future? Emerging from the BP Gulf Oil spill, and witnessing the post-quake-tsunami nuclear-reactor incidents in …
In order to ensure our national security, it is imperative that we change the way we produce and use energy. To aid this goal, SBE is initiating a new Conference series on Electrofuels Research to be …
(NewsWise/South Dakota State University) Humans may move one step closer to colonizing space thanks to a new research project that NASA is funding at South Dakota State University, the South Dakota School of Mines and …
(American Fuels) Joule Unlimited Technologies today (July 27, 2011) announced the issuance of its first two U.S. patents covering its fundamental method for producing ethanol at volumes and efficiencies far surpassing biomass-dependent processes.
The patents relate …
by Chris de Morsella (Green Economy Post) A detailed review of 12 U.S. based synthetic biology, biofuel & biochemical companies that are developing third and fourth generation biofuels, bioindustrial & household chemical, and food additive products; using synthetic …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …There are a class of fuels that are deeply rooted in biological process, and share the goal of replacing fossil fuels with low-carbon substitutes, but are not strictly biofuels.
Huh? Well, …
by Jason Kennedy (IT World) One company figured out a way to turn the byproduct of a genetically modified bacteria into biofuel.
…A Cambridge, MA based company, Joule Unlimited, however, thinks that race might be over …
by Tracey Bryant (University of Delaware) Pulling valuable fuels out of thin air? It sounds like magic, but Joel Rosenthal, a chemist at the University of Delaware, is working to transform carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Massachusetts, Joule reported that they have signed a lease for 1,200 acres in Lea County, New Mexico, with the potential to scale the project up to 5,000 acres for …
(Morningstar Business Wire/Phytonix) Asheville, NC-based Phytonix Corporation now owns the exclusive worldwide licensing rights for a cutting-edge technology to create an environmentally friendly fuel that replaces gasoline. It also has partnered with a top European University laboratory …
(Joule) Peer-reviewed article addresses the advances made by Joule to achieve direct, continuous conversion of solar energy to renewable diesel at 15,000 gallons/acre/year
Joule Unlimited, Inc., pioneer of Liquid Fuel from the Sun™, today supported the high-productivity …
by Damian Carrington (The Guardian) Scientists raise hopes for a large-scale renewable source of liquid fuel with a simple reactor that mimics plants
A simple reactor that mimics plants by turning sunlight into fuel has been …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) LanzaTech announced that it has produced 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD), a key building block used to make polymers, plastics and hydrocarbon fuels, using the company’s waste steel gas fermentation technology.
LanzaTech is a …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Massachusetts, the secretive Joule Unlimited (then known as Joule Biotechnologies) emerged late last year from “stealth mode” with the startling announcement that their technology could produce up to 15,000 gallons …
(GTM Research) …In this report, we focus on “third-generation” algae biofuels and “fourth-generation” biofuels that are either created using petroleum-like hydroprocessing, advanced bio-chemistry, or revolutionary processes like Joule’s “solar-to-fuel” method that defies any other category …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Aside from the general observation that nearly all energy systems ultimately are based on today’s or yesterday’s solar energy (only geothermal and nuclear power are distinct exceptions), a new generation …
(US Department of Energy) California Institute of Technology to lead team in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and other California institutions
As part of a broad effort to achieve breakthrough innovations in energy production, U.S. …
(BrighterEnergy.com) Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed new legislation that makes tax credits available for projects that use algae to turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into biofuels.
…The new legislation specifies that qualified research includes only …
(North Carolina State University) The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) has awarded a grant for more than $2.7 million to North Carolina State University to support research into the creation of biofuels …
by Kevin Bullis (Technology Review, MIT) When Noubar Afeyan, the CEO of Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, MA, set out to invent the ideal renewable fuel, he decided to eliminate the middleman. Biofuels ultimately come from …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …In the Joule technology, biomass is not used as an intermediate. Via a solar converter unit, the microorganism obtains carbon and oxygen by fixing atmospheric CO2 or utilizing direct fed …
