Defeating Scale-up with Process Intensification

The grand challenge of our generation is to provide all peoples of the world access to affordable energy and mobility without contributing to global climate change. Worldwide, the transportation sector contributes approximately 1.3 billion metric tons of atmospheric carbon per year, comprising about 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions [2014 Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]. Biomass-derived liquid hydrocarbon fuels represent one of the most promising pathways to affordable, low-carbon, long-range transportation. For example, a detailed survey by USDA and DOE found that the United States is capable of harvesting over 1 billion dry, sustainable tons of biomass feedstocks annually. The same report projects that these feedstocks could provide over 30% of the liquid hydrocarbon fuels required by the United States each year [Biomass as a Feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The Technical Feasibility of a Billion-Ton Annual Supply, Perlack, et al., 2005]. We have developed a breakthrough process that can produce low-cost (