The US Department of Energy is supporting a project led by Novozymes that proposes to deliver a screening platform which can be used to reduce discovery time required for tailoring enzymes to process specific contexts. It’s called SynTec — Synthetic Biology for Tailored Enzyme Cocktails — and its one of the signature synbio developments with immediate applications to the […]
The objective? To create an economically viable process for the production of butanol from the underutilized natural resources domestically available economically sustainable biofuel at or below DOE target selling price. And, suitable for roll-out in multiple regions containing agricultural residues and underutilized forest residuals. Not to mention, able to compete in the butanol market without subsidy. The Department […]
You know what they say, “you can make anything you want from lignin except money.” It’s the most challenging issues in biofuel production: upgrading the lignin-containing biorefineryresidues to fungible bioproducts, in an affordable, effective, scalable way. The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to develop a viable bioprocess to convert biorefinerywaste to bioplastics […]
Can it be done? That is, development of a sustainable green chemistry platform for production of acetone and downstream drop-in fuel and commodity products directly from biomass syngas via a novel energy conserving route in engineered acetogenic bacteria? It’s not only the longest title of a bioeconomy project in history, it’s a potentially history-making process […]
The US Department of Energy has a key project called Co-Optima, which aims to determine key fuel properties that enable improved engine efficiency, provide key science to enable high efficiency combustion modes, and capitalize on unique properties available from bio-blendstocks. Within that project is an emphasis on high-performance fuels, that has a goal to develop […]
We’ve been covering some important movements in the design and performance of yeast in recent weeks, including the arrival of Novozymes’ Innova drive strains. Most of the activity has been focused on 1G ethanol fermentation. But it’s been known for a long time that engineering a high tolerance to combined feedstock + product toxicity removes […]
The US Department of Energy is supporting a Kiverdi-led project to develop microbial biocatalysts to convert syngas into monoterpenes. Syngas feedstocks are relatively inexpensive and diverse, and thermophiles have several unique advantages; Meanwhile, end products have value as fuel and solvent applications among others. The diversity of feedstocks available to syngas processes (including waste) together […]
DSM and Evonik have given a name to their joint venture to produce omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA from natural marine algae for animal nutrition — something that’s been traditionally been made from wild-caught fish oil. They’re calling it Veramaris — and they’re cutting out the middlefish, more or less, as Cellana CEO Martin […]
The Consortium for Computational Physics and Chemistry (CCPC) is a joint core research and development activity among five national laboratories that has been created to utilize unique DOE computational modeling facilities and experience in order to accelerate the discovery and deployment of novel materials in support of the Energy Materials Network and the Materials Genome […]
In the world of bio-oil production, current technologies have low carbon retention in fuel range and high hydrogen consumption. The DOE is supporting a project led by Daniel Resasco at the University of Oklahoma to develop a more effective fractionation, combined with catalytic upgrading for carbon-carbon bond formation. The ultimate objective? Maximizing carbon efficiency at […]
