Does It Have the Superbug for Biofuel?
Joule Biotechnologies says it’ engineering microbes that can make two types of fuel, won’t require expensive feedstocks like sugar, and don’t have to die after making a batch of fuel. In the fuel industry’s quest for a superbug, it seems to come close. “We believe we are doing something that is very unprecedented,” said David Berry, a partner at Flagship Ventures and Joule’s co-founder. “We are not dependent on agricultural land because we don’t need a crop.” Joule, of course, will have to prove it can produce fuel on a massive scale – a daunting challenge. The biofuel industry is largely in pre-commercialization stages (see Biofuels: Are We There Yet?). Developing the right technologies and raising enough money to build commercial plants remain big hurdles. And although it’s a crowded market, Joule has a few things going for it that make it noteworthy. First is its ambitions. Cambridge, Mass.-based Joule says that its microbes can make either ethanol or a hydrocarbon, two types of fue
