Biobutanol
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Gevo and ICM Ally to Commercialize Production of Butanols and Hydrocarbons From Retrofitted Ethanol Plants
November 05, 2008
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| Synthetic networks for non-fermentative alcohol production from glucose in engineered E. coli developed by Dr. Liao at UCLA and licensed by Gevo. The red arrows represent the two-step conversion (KDC/ADH) of 2-keto acids to alcohols. Click to enlarge. Adapted from Atsumi et al. 2008 |
Gevo, Inc. and ICM, Inc. have formed a strategic alliance for the commercial development of Gevo’s Integrated Fermentation Technology (GIFT) that enables the production of isobutanol and hydrocarbons from retrofitted ethanol plants.
Under terms of the agreement, Gevo’s demonstration plant will be located at ICM’s St. Joseph, Mo., biofuels research center. ICM will serve as the exclusive engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the retrofit of ethanol plants utilizing GIFT. Gevo will be ICM’s exclusive technology partner for the production of butanols, pentanols and propanols. Gevo says that the strategic alliance will reduce the time needed to reach commercial scale and provide a competitive advantage as Gevo executes its global development plans.
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Cobalt Biofuels Raises $25 Million to Commercialize Biobutanol
October 20, 2008
California-based Cobalt Biofuels has raised $25 million in equity to accelerate the commercialization of its cost-effective biochemical process for biobutanol production. Cobalt says that the advantages of its process are based on advances in microbial strain improvement, fermentation reaction management, and separation technology.
The Series C equity round was co-led by LSP and Pinnacle Ventures and included both new and existing investors. The Series C round had strong participation from Cobalt Biofuels’ existing institutional investors, including Pinnacle Ventures, Vantage Point Venture Partners, The Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund and @Ventures. New investors included LSP and Harris and Harris. Fouad Azzam, General Partner of LSP, will be joining the Board.
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Integrated SSFR Process Could Make Cellulosic Biobutanol More Competitive with Ethanol
October 17, 2008
Researchers at the US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are refining an integrated method of producing cellulosic biobutanol that could make it more competitive with ethanol as an alternative to gasoline. (Earlier post.)
Research team leader Nasib Qureshi began investigating the production of cellulosic biobutanol from wheat straw in 2003. His initial fermentation-based process involved the usual four sequential steps in such an approach (pre-treatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation using Clostridium bacteria, and recovery). Qureshi and colleagues then devised a way to consolidate three of the four steps into a simultaneous saccharification, fermentation and recovery (SSFR) process.
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GM Developing Global Advanced Biofuels Program
October 13, 2008
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| A portion of the current biofuels component of GM’s roadmap to improved energy diversity and reduced emissions. Click to enlarge. |
GM has been steadily building a global advanced biofuels program as one element of its efforts to reduce the use of petroleum and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
The company’s approach goes beyond simply trying to generate support for flex-fuel vehicles (“Live Green, Go Yellow”, earlier post) and fostering an E85 refueling infrastructure in the US. The more aggressive focus on advanced biofuels has resulted in its investment in two emergent lignocellulosic ethanol companies—Coskata (earlier post) and Mascoma (earlier post)—as well as the establishment of a collaborative bioenergy research center based at Tsinghua University in China as part of its larger Global Energy System Center work.
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BP: Biofuels Could Potentially Account for up to 30% of Global Transportation Fuel by 2030
October 09, 2008
Based on announced targets and pending regulations, BP’s assessment is that biofuels could account for between 11 and 19% of the transport fuel market by 2030. The company also thinks there is a possibility, if the industry can address some of the land, feedstock and technology issues that exist today, for up to 30% biofuels penetration into transportation by 2030, according to Susan Ellerbusch, VP Global Biofuels for BP.
Delivering that aggressive quantity of more than 600 billion liters (158.5 billion gallons US) of biofuels by 2030 would require progress particularly in the area of cellulosic biofuels, Ellerbusch said in a talk at Platts 3rd Annual Cellulosic Ethanol and Biofuels conference in Chicago (9-10 October).
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USDA & DOE Release National Biofuels Action Plan; UN FAO Report Calls For Review of Biofuels Policies
October 07, 2008
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| NBAP top-level advanced biofuels commercialization timeline. Click to enlarge. |
The US Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) released the National Biofuels Action Plan (NBAP), an interagency plan detailing the collaborative efforts of Federal agencies to accelerate the development of a sustainable biofuels industry.
Separately, in a new edition of its annual publication The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2008, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for an urgent review of biofuel policies and subsidies to preserve the goal of world food security, protect poor farmers, promote broad-based rural development and ensure environmental sustainability.
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Argonne Investigating Butanol/Diesel Blends in Light-Duty Vehicles
August 15, 2008
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| Steady-state NOx versus filter smoke number at 35 mph for ULSD, Bu20 and Bu40. Click to enlarge. |
Butanol can be used as a blending agent in diesel to displace petroleum and reduce emissions of particulate matter without significantly increasing NOx or significantly lowering the cetane number, according to the results of a preliminary study by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory.
With properties superior to that of ethanol, butanol (C4H9OH) is generally being considered as a gasoline blend component. Test results presented by BP and DuPont at SAE World Congress 2007 showed that bio-derived 1-butanol (also called n-butanol) performs similarly to unleaded gasoline on key parameters, and that biobutanol formulations meet key characteristics of a “good” spark ignition fuel, including high energy density, controlled volatility, sufficient octane and low levels of impurities. (Earlier post.)
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China Lake Researchers Develop Potential Biobutanol Pathway for Synthetic Jet Fuel
July 29, 2008
Researchers at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) at China Lake, California have developed an efficient batch catalysis process for the conversion of 1-butene (C4H8)—easily derived from butanol (C4H10O)—to a new class of potential synthetic jet fuel blends, with a specific focus on the requirements for the Navy’s JP-5. JP-5 has a significantly higher flash point (60°C) in comparison to the Air Force JP-8 and commercial jet fuel (~38°C).
The resulting product developed by the team of Michael Wright, Benjamin Harvey, and Roxanne Quintana is 100% iso-paraffinic, meets flash point and cold-flow requirements, and has a calculated power density (per volume) higher than similar fuels made by the GTL Fischer-Tropsch process. They report on their work in an ASAP paper published online 29 July 2008 in the journal Energy & Fuels.
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GM Pushes for Ethanol; Update on Cellulosic Biofuels Partner Coskata
May 24, 2008
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| Cellulosic ethanol producer Coskata has rapidly brought its microbes to levels of commercial productivity with the assistance of genomic analysis that identified optimized nutritional pathways. Click to enlarge. Source: Coskata |
General Motors is picking up the pace on its steady push for the adoption of ethanol as a major alternative to petroleum fuel in the US and in other countries. As part of that campaign, GM this week hosted a media briefing at cellulosic biofuels start-up Coskata’s lab in Warrenville, Illinois to highlight the progress made by the syngas-to-ethanol company. GM announced an investment in and strategic alliance with Coskata in January. (Earlier post.)
GM also participated in an Ethanol Summit panel prior to the Indianapolis 500—for which GM is providing a concept E85 Z06 Corvette pace car—that included Beth Lowry, GM’s VP of Environment and Energy; Dr. Michael Ladisch, CTO of Mascoma, GM’s other cellulosic ethanol partner (earlier post); Marcos Jank, president of UNICA, the largest ethanol co-op in Brazil; Bill Becker, president of Lifeline Foods, the sole provider of E100 to the Indy circuit (Indy racing now runs on 100% ethanol); and Brazilian racing legend Emerson Fittipaldi, an ethanol investor and producer. Fittipaldi is driving the E85 Z06 pace car at the Indy 500 this year.
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Bio-Butanol Startup Closes $17M Financing Round
May 14, 2008
Mercury News. Gevo, a spinoff from Caltech that is targeting the production of bio-butanol and other advanced biofuels from a variety of biomass feedstocks, has closed a $17-million third round of funding.
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Ohio Awards $17M in Advanced Energy Grants; Major Focus on Alternative Fuels
March 26, 2008
The Ohio Third Frontier Commission has awarded more than $12 million in grants to 17 Ohio-based entities to accelerate the development and growth of the advanced energy industry in Ohio. Awards for advanced energy were selected from the wind, solar, alternative fuel, energy storage and instruments, controls, and electronics sectors.
The eight alternative fuels projects (47% of the projects) captured more than $5.6 million of the funding (47%). Three energy storage projects (17.7%) netted almost $1.5 million (12.5%).
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DuPont and BP Partnership Targeting Multiple Butanol Molecules; Testing 16% Blends
February 14, 2008
The DuPont and BP partnership to develop and commercialize biobutanol (earlier post) is targeting advanced metabolic pathways for 1-butanol as well as other higher-octane biobutanol isomers. Testing of these advanced biofuels has demonstrated that the use of biobutanol can increase the blending of biofuels in gasoline beyond the current 10% limit for ethanol without compromising performance.
Speaking at the Agra Informa Next Generation Biofuels conference in Hamburg, Germany, DuPont Biofuels Venture Manager David Anton and BP Biofuels Business Technology Manager Ian Dobson disclosed that the partnership has been developing biocatalysts to produce 1-butanol as well as 2-butanol and iso-butanol—higher octane biobutanol isomers that are of increased interest and utility from a fuels perspective.
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UCLA Researchers Modify E. Coli to Produce Efficiently Higher-Chain Alcohols for Advanced Biofuels
January 02, 2008
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| The UCLA approach shifts part of the bacteria’s biosynthetic pathway to alcohol synthesis. Various 2-keto acid precursors lead to corresponding alcohols through 2-ketoacid decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at UCLA have genetically modified Escherichia coli to produce efficiently several higher-chain alcohols from glucose, including isobutanol, 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-phenylethanol. A description of the work appears in the 3 January issue of the journal Nature.
Instead of relying on fermentation for the production of the alcohols, the UCLA approach—developed by professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering James Liao, postdoctoral fellow Shota Atsumi and visiting professor Taizo Hanai—leverages E. coli’s highly active amino acid biosynthetic pathway by shifting part of it (its 2-keto acid intermediates) to alcohol synthesis. In particular, the research team achieved high-yield, high-specificity production of isobutanol from glucose.
