Massachusetts company making diesel with sun, water, CO2

A recent article states that diesel fuel can be made with the same ingredients that makes grass grow. Joule Unlimited is a Massachusetts based biotechnology company. They have invented a genetically-engineered organism that secretes diesel fuel (or ethanol) whenever it interacts with sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. The costs are relatively cheap to grow the organism and can be grown in large or small facilities. The reason why this is more effective than other production of ethanol (in corn or algae) is because Joule Unlimited cut out the middle man which was creating most of the costs. The middleman is the biomass, the untold amounts of corn or algae that had to be produced, harvested, and destroyed to make the ethanol. The new genetically engineered organism secretes the finished product and does not need to be destroyed and regrown. The genetically engineered organism is call cyanobacterium, that was patented by Joule Unlimited in 2007. The claims are that the organism can create 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel per acre annually, which is four times more efficient than the algae making process. The best part? It only costs 30 dollars a barrel. Although doubts are in place by other biotechnology companies, Joule Unlimited plans to break ground on a 10-acre facility later this year.

[caption id="attachment_986" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Cyanobacterium is found everywhere and less complex than algae so it easier to genetically manipulate."][/caption]