State nanotechnology corporation RusNano has agreed to invest $35mn in improvement of a renewable fuel production technology provided by U.S. Joule Unlimited.

RusNano will co-finance a project to improve the technology developed and owned by the Massachusetts-based biotech company, which also plans to set up an R&D centre in Russia in line with its international development strategy, RusNano press office reports.

The Joule technology can be used to produce up to 140 000 liters of diesel fuel and 230 000 liters of ethanol from one hectare of farmland annually. The price of fuel produced by this technology is highly competitive if compared to conventional fuel.

Joule is currently testing the technology in the United States. The demo plant is scheduled to go on stream in 2012 and commercial production is to start in 2013.