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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, September 1, 2010
Tech across New England
Joule sees future in renewable fuel
By Mass High Tech staff
Carbonrally joins gaming with cutting carbon emissions
Mass. metal developer aims for more fuel efficient cars
Joule Unlimited Inc.
Location: Cambridge, Mass.
web: www.jouleunlimited.com
Phone: 617-354-6100
Date founded: 2007
top executive: William J. Sims, CEO
Industry: Renewable fuels and chemicals
Joule Unlimited Inc. says it’s on target to be commercially producing a renewable type of diesel by 2012, using new technology that requires no biomass, and that it will be commercially producing ethanol and chemicals using the same process after that. Joule’s technology revolves around a solar converter that uses carbon dioxide, water, solar energy and a specialty organism to produce the fuels or chemicals, which Joule says takes place in a one-step process. The company’s pilot plant in Leander, Texas, should be up and running soon for producing ethanol, and diesel will be added by the end of the year, according to the company.
Joule was founded in 2007 by Flagship Venture Labs, an arm of Cambridge-based VC firm Flagship Ventures. The company is currently looking to more than double its facility size by moving to a new location that is 35,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet, and is looking at sites both inside and outside Massachusetts. The company believes its technology could dramatically change the fuel industry by de-centralizing it, allowing any region with access to land, sunlight, CO2 and water to produce its own fuel.
From the top, CEO William J. Sims: “If we’re half right as it relates to getting to our targets, we revolutionize the world’s largest industry, which is the fuels and chemicals business. If we’re right, and come very, very close to our targets, no one could argue that this company doesn’t literally change the world.”
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