Joule Named Among 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World

MIT’s Technology Review cites Joule’s world-changing potential as part of the 2010 TR50

Cambridge, Mass. – March 2, 2010 – Joule today announced its inclusion among MIT Technology Review’s 2010 TR50 – an inaugural list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world. Operating since 2007 and less than one year out of stealth mode, Joule was chosen alongside noted industry-changers such as Google, Apple and Twitter, reflecting its potential to reshape the oil industry with solar fuels and chemicals, including fungible diesel and ethanol, that surpass today’s barriers to abundant, sustainable, cost-competitive supply.

Joule’s proprietary production process breaks entirely new ground in the race to replace fossil fuels by directly converting sunlight and waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid fuels – removing costly feedstocks and inefficient processing steps from the equation. As a result, Joule effectively bypasses the cost and resource constraints that have hindered biofuels – pioneering a new, breakthrough category of drop-in replacement fuels at unprecedented quantities and costs.

“In choosing the TR50, we picked companies with this year’s most important inventions and breakthroughs,” said David Rotman, editor, Technology Review. “Joule was selected because of its potential to transform how we make renewable fuels. Its use of engineered microbes to directly convert the sun’s energy into ethanol and hydrocarbon fuels overcomes many of the problems in making conventional biofuels, which, unlike Joule’s products, require biomass growth and processing.”

“More than a promising concept, Joule has created a systems-based process that generates numerous high-value fuels and chemicals. We’ve already begun to implement this process at pilot scale, driving towards the creation of high-capacity production facilities starting as early as 2012,” said Bill Sims, president and CEO, Joule. ”Our technology platform will put Joule at the very forefront of next-generation fuel and chemical producers, leapfrogging biomass-derived approaches while meeting or beating fossil fuels on price, but surpassing their well-known limitations. We’re aiming to change the game, and are thrilled to be recognized among other top game-changing companies.”

“Despite the recent attention directed towards the decades-old efforts to produce algal oil, Joule stands apart in having demonstrated a cost-effective, sustainable and scalable approach,” said Noubar Afeyan, founder and chairman, Joule. “The company has achieved a number of technological breakthroughs, including proprietary genome engineering of photosynthetic hosts, a novel Solar Converter™ platform, and an integrated process design for commercial production of renewable diesel at unprecedented scales. Inclusion among the 2010 TR50 reflects the significance of these breakthroughs and their truly world-changing potential.”

Companies named to the 2010 TR50 were evaluated based on business model, strategies for deploying and scaling up their technologies, and the likelihood of success. Each company in the 2010 TR50 excelled not only at inventing technology but also at using it to transform how we live and work. The complete list is available at www.technologyreview.com/companywatch/tr50/.

About Joule

Joule is tackling the global energy crisis with a game-changing, renewable alternative to transportation fuels. Its patent-pending Helioculture™ technology surpasses the limitations of biomass-derived approaches by using sunlight to convert CO2 directly into fungible fuels and chemicals. This direct-to-fuel conversion requires no fresh water and minimal non-agricultural land, avoids costly intermediaries and processing, and finally enables the scale, unlimited quantities and pricing required for energy independence. Founded in 2007 by Flagship Venture Labs, Joule is privately held and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Additional information is available at www.joulebio.com.