Autonomous, low-energy separation of n-butanol produced from lignocellulosic resources

Over the past decade, significant public and private resources have been invested to unlock the potential benefits of renewable fuels and biobased chemicals. One such promising chemical is n-butanol, widely considered a "drop-in" fuel and fuel additive as well as an important commodity chemical with widespread uses. Although n-butanol production using microorganisms has been known for more than a century, its high production cost in the current economic landscape remains a key challenge. While significant reserach effortshave been applied to enhance n-butanol production, a technical breakthrough still remains to be achieved. This proposed project builds on promising preliminary work in which microenvironmental engineering enabled substantial improvements in the toxicity resistance of microorganisms involved in n-butanol production. In the proposed work, this technique is leveraged to develop a first-of-its-kind continuous fermentation process using lignocellulosic biomass to provide with autonomous separation of high purity n-butanol.It is anticipated that this project will demonstrate a new, intensified process for n-butanol production with reliable cost reductions to catalyze the adoption of renewable n-butanol in the chemical and fuel sectors. The prototype developed in the course of this work is expected to demonstrate titers and productivity rates far exceeding the state-of-the-art, as well as less water and energy consumption. Furthermore, the proposed technology is uniquely positioned to help expedite the use of agricultural wastes, residues, and energy crops for biobutanol production, diversity rural economics, and mitigate the largely negative environmental impacts associated with continued dependence on petroleum for fuels and chemicals.