US biofuels startup Terragia Biofuel is using technology developed in collaboration with the Centre for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Dartmouth College, to target commercial biofuel production using plant waste as a feedstock.
The technology is based on engineered bacteria such as Clostridium thermocellum, which thrives at high temperatures and can digest and ferment waste such as switch grass and forest residues in a single process. The process yields ethanol containing 20% water, which is then converted into blendstock fuels for jet engines. The microbial-driven process could be bolted on to existing ethanol refineries and allow the use of material such as corn stalks, cobs, husks and leaves which are typically treated as waste after facilities process the corn kernels. The process also has the potential to save energy.
“The ethanol produced by this consolidated bioprocessing method can be used in a certified jet fuel blend stock at a lower cost than what is currently being made in the corn-to-ethanol method because no further distillation is required of the intermediate wet ethanol,” said Gerald Tuskan, CBI director and ORNL corporate fellow.
The aviation industry has a goal of replacing 50% of its fuel - about 35 billion gallons - with sustainable options by the year 2050. The 2023 Billion-Ton report produced by ORNL for the US Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office released earlier this year, suggested that the US has more than 1 billion tons of non-food plant-based feedstock available to produce such bio-based fuels.
“Terragia thinks of itself as a partner to industrial fuel producers,” said Terragia CEO Kristin Brief. “We envision working in close partnership with the firms who have access to plant feedstocks by supplying the technology to break down multiple types of plant material, enabling them to produce ethanol and other co-products.”
Terragia, which is based in New Hampshire, has raised $6 million in seed funding, led by investors Energy Impact Partners and The Engine, to help commercialize the biology-based technology. As well as working on scaling the technology for industry, the company is also working on a research and development project with a US biofuels producer to adapt the consolidated bioprocessing method to a feedstock of interest.
Further reading on science and innovation:
- Biofuels get investment whilst taking to the skies
- ARC opens centre turning waste into biofuels and bioplastic
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