10-14 IAN Joule

 Someone appears to have a great idea for alternative energy but that someone’s not talking. I’m David Spark and I’ll share a curious phone call in a minute. I got an e-mail from an old friend who has done a lot of work investigating alternative energy from camalina seeds to algae to ethanol. He said in the e-mail Joule Biotechnologies, a startup based in Massachusetts, has bio-engineered blue-green algae to make it produce hydrocarbon fuel directly from sunlight. The algae, also known as cyanobacteria, is combined with enzymes that capture sunlight to make a biofuel that can replace conventional fuels at less than half their cost.

The company has filed a patent for their technology and hopes to commercially produce biofuel in the next two years. I went to the Joule web site and it was full of information including contact information for their Senior Vice President of Production John Ward. Called him up and he referred me to Felicia Sagnolli their communications director and this is what I got “I just don’t think it’s a fit for Joule to be honest we don’t have a real strong tie to the ag world because our whole premise is avoiding agricultural feedstocks.” With an attitude like that it was very difficult to wish her and her company continued success and have a nice day.