Biocatalysis

What would you call a company that uses a microorganism to produce fuel? Well, according to Bill Sims, CEO of Joule Biotechnologies, not a biofuels company.

Sims was only announced as CEO of Joule yesterday, but he is wasting no time in trying to shine a public light on the company, although his comments are not always very illuminating. Joule has developed what it calls a HelioCulture system that concentrates sunlight and relies on a “highly engineered synthetic organism” that is unidentified but is “not algae” to convert CO₂ and nutrients to produce fuels and chemicals. But since no biomass is used, Sims is trying to avoid the “biofuels” moniker and what he considers to be the negative PR that comes with it.

The basic concept is termed “revolutionary” by Sims, and appears to be similar to that of Craig Venter’s company Synthetic Genomics, which recently announced a large commercialization agreement with Exxon Mobil.

According to Sims, Joule hasn’t worked out its business model yet, preferring to wait for the market to determine whether it is better to produce and sell fuels or license the technology to fuels producers, but that didn’t stop Flagship Ventures from making an initial investment that is termed “substantially less than $50 million.”

It all sounds great, but I see one drawback right away. Ethanol is planned to be the first product, and ethanol is a lousy fuel. And, I am sorry about this Bill, but I am tagging this post under biofuels and biofuels companies. I really wouldn’t know how else to categorize it.