Joule Unlimited (Bedford, Mass.; www.jouleunlimited.com), the pioneer of liquid fuels from recycled CO2, and Red Rock Biofuels LLC (Fort Collins, Colo.; www.redrockbio.com), a leading developer of renewable jet and diesel fuel biorefineries, today announced their intent to merge. Red Rock adds a proven technology pathway to Joule’s own Helioculture technology and strengthens Joule’s platform for global supply of carbon neutral fuels. The transaction is expected to close during the coming 30 days.
In association with this merger, after a year of important service at a critical transition phase for the company, Joule also announced that President and CEO, industry veteran Mr. Serge Tchuruk, will return to his previous board role. Dr. Brian Baynes, a current board member of both Joule and Red Rock and partner at Flagship Ventures, will succeed Tchuruk and will lead Joule as it enters a commercial deployment phase.
Red Rock Biofuels leverages a commercially proven Fischer-Tropsch technology to convert sustainably harvested biomass residues from forests and sawmills into jet fuel and diesel products. The company is poised to begin construction of its first refinery located in Lakeview, Oregon in early 2016. The project is supported by a $70 million grant from the U.S. departments of Agriculture, Navy and Energy, and the company has entered into substantial offtake agreements with Southwest Airlines and FedEx for the fuel that will be produced.
“By merging Red Rock Biofuels with Joule, we intend to accelerate the commercialization of carbon-neutral fuels and continue to build a world leading company,” said Tchuruk, outgoing President and CEO of Joule. He added, “Joule’s proprietary platform provides a path towards carbon-neutral mobility and Red Rock Biofuels will add an immediate commercial capability to produce renewable diesel and jet fuel, complementing our unique direct pathway through direct conversion of CO2 to drop-in fuels. I am very proud to have been part of this important transformation of Joule, which will now significantly speed up our commercialization. Red Rock’s Lakeview project will continue as planned with its current management team, beginning construction in 2016 and producing at a scale of 15 million gallons of renewable diesel and jet fuel when completed.”
As part of this merger and expansion of the commercial pathways, Joule has also restructured its business operations to streamline resources and focus on its two commercial pathways.
Joule develops technology platforms for the production of sustainable, drop in, low carbon transportation fuels. The company pioneered a direct CO2-to-fuel production platform, effectively reversing combustion through the use of solar energy. This platform applies engineered catalysts to continuously convert waste CO2 directly into renewable fuels such as ethanol or hydrocarbons for diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline.
Red Rock Biofuels LLC will refine waste biomass residues into high value, low carbon renewable jet and diesel fuels. Utilizing waste forest residues as a feedstock at its Lakeview, Oregon facility will help improve ecosystem health and reduce the risk of destructive wildfires in our forests, and renewable fuels will help our customers address their price volatility, energy security and climate change challenges. Using a well-proven process technology platform, based on gasification, Fischer-Tropsch conversion and product upgrading, Red Rock Biofuels is the only company able to produce renewable, ASTM-specification jet and diesel fuels at cost parity with conventional fuels.