Biobutanol

[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]

Honeywell’s UOP receives $1.1M FAA contract to demonstrate technology for conversion of isobutanol from Gevo to aviation biofuels

December 02, 2011

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, was awarded a $1.1 million contract from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) via the US Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center to develop and demonstrate technology that will produce renewable jet fuel from isobutanol supplied by Gevo, Inc. (Earlier post.) The award was one of eight such from the FAA, totaling $7.7M.

Isobutanol can be produced from a variety of starch and sugar feedstocks, including corn. In the future, inedible sources, such as corn stover, bagasse and wood residues, could also be used as feedstocks. In September, Gevo received a $5-million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the development of biojet fuel from woody biomass and forest product residues. (Earlier post.)

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Gevo awarded $5M to develop cellulosic jet fuel; separate contract to supply alcohol-to-jet drop-in biojet fuel to USAF

September 28, 2011

Gevo, Inc. received a $5-million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the development of biojet fuel from woody biomass and forest product residues. The award is a portion of a $40-million grant presented to the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA), a consortium led by Washington State University (WSU). (Earlier post.)

Separately, Gevo has also been awarded a contract by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to supply biojet fuel to the US Air Force (USAF). The contract, worth a possible total of $600,000, provides that Gevo will supply the USAF with up to 11,000 gallons of “alcohol-to-jet” (ATJ)-based jet fuel, which will be used to support engine testing and a feasibility flight demonstration using an A-10 aircraft.

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Gevo and Mansfield Oil sign commercial off-take and strategic alliance agreements for renewable isobutanol

September 08, 2011

Gevo, Inc. has entered into a strategic marketing alliance with Mansfield Oil Company to distribute isobutanol-based fuel into the petroleum market. In addition the companies signed a commercial off-take agreement—Gevo’s second commercial off-take agreement to date and its first in the fuel industry.

The agreement has three main component: the first two are part of a five-year contract that allows Mansfield to blend Gevo’s isobutanol for its own use, and to be a distributer of Gevo’s isobutanol. The third is a three-year contract, under which a Mansfield subsidiary will provide supply chain services that include logistics management, customer service support, invoicing and billing services.

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Gevo contracts with Arabian American Development to develop hydrocarbon materials from its renewable isobutanol

July 26, 2011

Arabian American Development Co. (ARSD) has signed a contract with Gevo, Inc., a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company, to build a renewable hydrocarbon processing demonstration plant at ARSD’s South Hampton Resources, Inc. subsidiary in Silsbee, Texas and to provide Gevo with toll-processing services necessary to process up to 10,000 gallons of Gevo’s renewable isobutanol per month into a variety of hydrocarbon materials.

These materials include jet fuel, isooctane for gasoline, isooctene and paraxylene for polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This will allow Gevo to supply early adopters with product so they can test material, make samples and start their selling cycle.

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China biobutanol firm files F-1 for public offering in US; developing process for cellulosic biobutanol

July 25, 2011

Cathay’s current bio-refinery model using corn starch as feedstock. Click to enlarge.

Shanghai-based Cathay Industrial Biotech, a producer of bio-derived n-butanol and of bioprocess-based long-chain dicarboxylic acids (LCDAs) used as chemical intermediates, has filed a form F-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for offering American depositary shares (ADS) in the US market.

Cathay presently produces its biobutanol via fermentation (ABE, acetone, biobutanol and ethanol) using corn starch as its feedstock; one of its key pipeline products is biobutanol produced using biomass (such as corncobs and corn stover) as a feedstock instead. The other is Disodium Inosine-5'-monophosphate and Disodium Guanosine-5'-monophosphate (I+G)—a food flavor enhancer that complements monosodium glutamate (MSG).

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Univ. of Illinois study argues regulatory hurdles hindering commercialization of new biofuels; biobutanol case study

July 22, 2011

Regulatory hurdles are hindering the successful commercialization of emerging liquid biofuels, according to a new study by University of Illinois law professor Jay P. Kesan and Timothy A. Slating, a regulatory associate with the University of Illinois Energy Biosciences Institute.

Kesan and Slating provide a normative analysis of regulatory schemes incentivizing and governing the commercialization of biofuel-related technological innovations as well as the frameworks that govern lawful commercialization. They argue that regulatory innovation is needed to keep pace with these technological innovations, noting that (a) regulatory burdens should not outweigh the harms they are intended to mitigate, and that (b) regulatory innovation is often called for to efficiently capture the social value of regulated activities. Then they apply these insights via a case study focused on biobutanol.

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Gevo to proceed to jet engine testing of its renewable jet fuel from isobutanol with approval of ASTM alcohol-to-jet task force

June 29, 2011

Gevo, a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company, recently announced that it had presented positive test results from fit-for-purpose testing of its renewable kerosene produced from isobutanol to ASTM’s alcohol to jet (ATJ) task force (D02J006 Alcohol to Jet TF).

The ATJ task force consists of technical experts from a wide stakeholder group including jet engine manufacturers, governmental bodies, fuel manufacturers, third-party testing laboratories, academics and airframe manufacturers investigating the requirements for a third major pathway to renewable drop-in jet fuel: the conversion of alcohols. Two first two synthetic fuel pathways approved by ASTM are gas-to-liquids and hydroprocessed oils. (Earlier post.)

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Gevo contracts with Mustang Engineering for the conversion of Gevo’s renewable isobutanol to biojet fuel

April 26, 2011

High-level process schematic for hydrocarbons from isobutanol. Source: Gevo. Click to enlarge.

Gevo, Inc., a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company, signed an engineering and consulting agreement with Mustang Engineering, LP for the conversion of Gevo’s renewable isobutanol to biojet fuel. This effort will focus on the downstream processing of isobutanol to paraffinic kerosene (jet fuel) for jet engine testing, airline suitability flights and advancing commercial deployment. (Earlier post.)

Gevo also announced that its “fit for purpose” testing at the Air Force Research Laboratory continues with a final report expected in June. Once completed successfully, the company will initiate jet engine testing with engine manufacturers.

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Cobalt Technologies and American Process partnering to build first cellulosic biobutanol refinery

April 19, 2011

Overview of Cobalt’s process. Click to enlarge.

Cobalt Technologies, a company using strain development and bioprocess technology to optimize biobutanol production (earlier post), and American Process Inc. (API) are partnering to build an industrial-scale cellulosic biorefinery to produce biobutanol. Additionally, the companies agreed to jointly market a GreenPower+ Biobutanol solution to biomass power facilities and other customers worldwide.

GreenPower+ is a patent-pending API process to add an extraction module and ethanol production module (and now biobutanol) to a biomass boiler. In Green Power+, power and ethanol are co-produced, thus maximizing the value added products from biomass.

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UCLA researchers engineer E. coli to produce 1-butanol with high titer and high yield

March 17, 2011

A team of UCLA researchers led by Professor James Liao have engineered Escherichia coli bacteria to produce 1-butanol with high titer (30 g/L) and high yield (70 - 88% of theoretical production) anaerobically, comparable to or exceeding the levels demonstrated by native producers. An open access paper on their work appears in the journal Applied Environmental Microbiology.

For the study, Liao and his team initially constructed a 1-butanol biochemical pathway in E. coli, a microbe that doesn’t naturally produce 1-butanol, but found that production levels were limited. However, after adding metabolic driving forces to the pathway by genetically engineering the metabolism, the researchers witnessed a tenfold increase in the production of 1-butanol. The metabolic driving forces pushed the carbon flux to 1-butanol.

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UC Berkeley researchers boost E. Coli butanol production with new enzymatic pathway

March 02, 2011

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have constructed a chimeric pathway assembled from three different organisms for the high-level production of n-butanol (4,650 ± 720 mg l^-1) in E. coli bacteria. The pathway uses an enzymatic chemical reaction mechanism in place of a physical step as a kinetic control element to achieve high yields from glucose (28%).

The advance is reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology by Michelle C. Y. Chang, assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, graduate student Brooks B. Bond-Watts and recent UC Berkeley graduate Robert J. Bellerose.

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Physiomics, Green Biologics Limited and North Energy Associates to develop advanced fermentation process for biobutanol to make it cost competitive with 1st gen biofuels

December 07, 2010

Physiomics, an Oxford, UK-based systems biology company, Green Biologics Limited (GBL) and North Energy Associates Limited were recently awarded a total grant for £268,000 (US$424,000) from the Carbon Trust for a project to demonstrate an Advanced Fermentation Process for Butanol.

The aim is to improve the microbial fermentation process for producing renewable butanol using solventogenic Clostridia. The project will focus on improvements in butanol productivity using a novel bioreactor design together with improved microbes and cheaper more sustainable feedstock found in the UK. Example feedstock includes sugar beet pulp, distillers dried grains & solubles (DDGS) and municipal solid waste.

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