Bionotícias

Biologia 12
Ficha de Leitura nº 9 Data:24/03/2011
Unidade de Ensino: Engenharia Genética

Conteúdo/assunto: Uma empresa de Massachusetts, Estados Unidos, anunciou uma nova tecnologia que permite criar diesel ou etanol com água, sol, e CO2.

Título: Empresa cria diesel e etanol da água
Resumo: A empresa “Joules Unilimited” introduziu uma cionobactéria geneticamente modificada que produz secreção de diesel ou etanol onde quer que encontre luz solar, água e dióxido de carbono, e que vai impedir que se continue a utilizar o petroleo e que se polua ainda mais o planeta. Esta energia é “limpa” e não produz residuos tóxicos.


Fonte: http://www.energydigital.com/sectors/biofuels/joule-unlimited-creates-biodiesel-ethanol-biofuel-without-feedstock (6/3/2011)


Pesquisador: Sofia Mendes Marques


Joule Unlimited Creates Biodiesel & Ethanol Biofuel without Feedstock
Biotechnology firm Joule Unlimited genetically engineered organism makes biodiesel and ethanol biofuel without feedstock

Joule Unlimited believes they can produce biodiesel and ethanol at prices competitive with the fossil fuels market. The company estimates that their cyanobacterium can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel per acre annually—four times more than current algal biodiesel processes. Joule Unlimited also predicts that their price per barrel will run only $30; far cheaper than the $100 a barrel crude oil prices on the market today.
The bioreactors used in Joule’s process look similar to solar panels, and house the cyanobacterium in thin grooved modules that allow for maximum sun exposure. The first ten-acre demonstration facility of Joule Unlimited’s groundbreaking technology is to be built this year, and the company has received $30 million in private funding in 2010—not too shabby for a company of 70 employees that started up just four years ago in 2007. It looks like investors—including former White House Chief of Staff and Joule Unlimited Board of Directors member John Podesta—are taking Joule’s claims seriously. The company hopes to build their processing facilities in close proximity to existing power plants to divert the CO2 waste into their cyanobacterium modules, creating biofuel while reducing carbon emissions.
Bill Sims, President and CEO of Joule says, "Joule was formed not to improve upon existing biofuel processes, but to create a new and transformational process altogether. We have channeled photosynthesis, the most productive energy-capture process on earth, at efficiencies previously thought unattainable. At the same time we've eliminated dependence on biomass, the Achilles heel of biofuel production, and the prohibitive costs, processing and logistics it entails. The result is a new paradigm for renewable fuel production with unrivalled productivity targets that are fully supported by actual, measurable gains we've achieved at every layer – from photon capture through product synthesis, secretion, separation and collection."
Skeptics to the Joule Unlimited no-feedstock-necessary process include National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist Philip Pienkos, who says the technology is exciting, but unproven, and efficiency claims by Joule could be undercut by difficulties extracting the fuel from the organisms producing it. The world will just have to wait and see what the results are from Joule’s demonstration facility later this year. If they get this right, it could be a game-changer.