We've heard about synthetic trees designed to capture CO2 from the air so that it can be stored somewhere, and we've dreamed of synthetic organisms that would poop gasoline (BTW, that old post is a perennial high hitter that may be worth a read), and now we have something in a similar vein.

A startup based in Cambridge, MA--Joule Biotechnologies--today revealed details of a process that it says can make 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year. If this yield proves realistic, it could make it practical to replace all fossil fuels used for transportation with biofuels. The company also claims that the fuel can be sold for prices competitive with fossil fuels.

Joule Biotechnologies grows genetically engineered microorganisms in specially designed photobioreactors. The microorganisms use energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into ethanol or hydrocarbon fuels (such as diesel or components of gasoline). The organisms excrete the fuel, which can then be collected using conventional chemical-separation technologies.

All of the other biofuel hacks promoted thus far make no sense. They make too little fuel for too much cost and harm the environment in the process. They skew markets, funnel ever more power to faceless bureaucrats, and degrade society in a variety of other ways.

This approach is far superior and will doubtless get better with time since there is lots of room for improvement of organisms to make them more efficient at using light energy more efficient at converting the energy to a wide variety of materials useful to humans.

IMV this is the future of farming in general. Harvesting sunlight is what ag does at the most basic level, and growing micro-organisms is what the light energy is really used for. All else is detail and variation.