Virent produces high quality renewable jet and gasoline from Virdia’s cellulosic sugars
26 March 2012
Virent and Virdia, formerly HCL CleanTech, have successfully converted cellulosic pine tree sugars to drop-in hydrocarbon fuels within the BIRD Energy project, a joint program funded by the US Department of Energy, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure and the BIRD Foundation. (Earlier post.)
The project, which commenced in January 2011, successfully demonstrated that Virdia’s deconstruction process generated high-quality sugars from cellulosic biomass, which were converted to fuel via Virent’s BioForming process. Virent used Virdia’s biomass-derived sugars to produce gasoline and jet fuel, the latter being sent to the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for analysis where it passed rigorous testing.
This fuel passed the most stringent specification tests we could throw at it (such as thermal stability) under some conditions where conventional jet fuels would fail. This fuel is definitely worth further evaluation.
—Tim Edwards of the Fuels Branch of the AFRL
While Virent’s BioForming process has previously generated fuels and chemicals from sugars in cellulosic biomass. the high-quality sugars generated from pine trees using Virdia’s process leveraged the conversion process, establishing a viable route to drop-in hydrocarbons from biomass, according to Virent Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Randy Cortright.
Virdia’s CASE (Cold Acid Solvent Extraction) process encompasses a sequence of proprietary extraction and separation operations. Originally developed around the Bergius process (concentrated hydrochloric acid hydrolysis of biomass), the CASE process achieves the highest yields in the industry, and produces high purity fractions of sugars and lignin. Its low temperature, low pressure hydrolysis coupled with its closed loops of acid recovery and solvent extraction establish it as one of the most economical and environmentally sustainable processes.
Virent’s BioForming platform utilizes a novel combination of catalytic processes to convert water-soluble oxygenated hydrocarbons derived from biomass to non-oxygenated hydrocarbons that can be used as drop-in compounds in gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. Virent’s BioForming platform catalysts and reactor systems are similar to those found in today’s petroleum oil refineries and petrochemical complexes.
It seems that catalytic conversion is moving faster than enzymatic and other bio reactors based process...not really a surprise
Posted by: Treehugger | 26 March 2012 at 02:45 PM
None of this is suppose to happen because the "experts" on here say there is not enough land, plant conversion of solar energy is too low and it can not replace all oil, so forget it.
Posted by: SJC | 26 March 2012 at 07:43 PM
If they're wrong you must have the figures to prove it.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 28 March 2012 at 06:09 PM
I do not have to prove it, because I did not make the assertion, they did and you did.
Posted by: SJC | 29 March 2012 at 10:05 AM
Saying that plant conversion efficiency is too low is like saying you will not eat corn flakes because the efficiency is too low. You need to eat, but you starve to death waiting for something better.
Posted by: SJC | 29 March 2012 at 10:08 AM
As it happens, the fact that I do live off the annual production of corn (however fossil-assisted it may be) proves that my diet is sustainable, at least in principle.
If you turned the entire US corn crop into ethanol at 2.7 gallons per bushel, the roughly 13 billion bushels wouldn't yield enough fuel to run 1/4 of the fleet (closer to 1/6). If you think a different crop could do the job, you must have something to back that up. If not, you're just trolling.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 29 March 2012 at 03:54 PM
I don't want to turn the corn crop into ethanol, in fact I do not want to use corn grain at all for fuel.
Enough...I have written on here for years and it is all on the record. Maybe someone with half a brain will find it interesting some day.
Posted by: SJC | 29 March 2012 at 04:54 PM
I said, "If you think a different crop could do the job, you must have something to back that up."
I want yield per acre, acres available (and if diverted, what serves the demand it used to), conversion efficiency and total output. You have NEVER. ONCE. posted numbers to support your assertions. You don't even seem to understand when others do them for you.
Do you have some kind of mental deficiency?
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 30 March 2012 at 01:56 PM