New MEGA-BIO to promote the manufacture of bioproducts alongside cost-competitive biofuels
One year ago, US DOE's Bioenergy Technologies
Office (BETO) selected three projects for an initial round of funding under a
program entitled “MEGA-BIO: Bioproducts to Enable Biofuels”. Early this month,
a new DOE announcement disclosed that another project has been granted with $1.8
million from the program (see press
release). The total funding for the four MEGA-BIO awards is $13.1 million.
MEGA-BIO supports
BETO’s goal of meeting its 2022 cost target of $3/gallon gasoline equivalent
for the production of hydrocarbon fuels from lignocellulosic biomass. The approach BETO had taken
previously to achieve this goal was to focus on conversion pathways that
produce biofuels with little or no emphasis on coproducing bioproducts. However,
manufacturing high-value bioproducts
alongside cost-competitive biofuels has the potential to generate a positive
return on investment for a biorefinery. Bioproducts can also incentivize
the de-risking of “front end” processes (from feedstock logistics through to
deconstruction) which are also necessary for fuel production. In this sense, the
four MEGA-BIO are focused on the development of biomass-to-hydrocarbon biofuels
conversion pathways that can produce variable amounts of fuels and products
based on external factors such as market demand.
As the blog did not echo the first
announcement, this might be the right time to highlight the partners and the
technologies involved in the four projects.
Partners
|
Technology
|
- The Dow
Chemical Company
- LanzaTech
- Northwestern
University
|
Process
for the bioconversion of
biomass-derived syngas to fatty alcohols as a pathway to biofuels.
|
- Amyris
- Renmatix
- Total
New Energies
|
Process to
produce farnesene from cellulosic
sugar at the same cost of the current manufacturing using cane syrup.
|
- Research
Triangle Institute
- Arkema
- AECOM
|
Process
to recover mixed methoxyphenols from
biocrude.
|
- Michigan
State University
- University
of Wisconsin–Madison
- MBI
International
|
Two-stage
process for deconstruction of biomass
into two clean intermediate streams: sugars
for the production of hydrocarbon fuels and lignin for the production of multiple value-added chemicals.
|