Renewable Fuel

The CEO of Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, MA, Noubar Afeyan set out to invent the first ideal renewable fuel. "What we wanted to know is [if we] could engineer a system that could convert carbon dioxide directly into any fuel that we wanted" says Afeyan. According to Joule Biotechnologies, they say yes. For the first time ever, they have created photosynthetic microorganisms that use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol or diesel, quickly and efficiently. Each microorganism is equipped with their own genetic switch that will limit their growth. The switches allow scientists to multiply the microorganisms for a few days, and with a flip of a switch change the organism’s growth into fuel production. Both the Startup Synthetic Genomics and an academic group at the BioTechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota are looking to make fuels directly from carbon dioxide as well. If Afeyan is right in his experiments and studies, biofuels could become an alternative to petroleum and meet at least 26% of the worlds demand for transportation fuel. “I'm not saying it's easy or around the corner, because I've done this for a long time," Afeyan says. Afeyan is confident and believes that Joule is onto something big. They could create renewable fuel that could compete with fossil fuels on both cost and scale. He says, "We have the elements of a potentially transformative technology."

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