Production of C5 Hydrocarbons from Waste Biomass

Medium length hydrocarbons are a multi-billion dollar market that has traditionally been satisfied using byproducts of naptha cracking in ethylene production. As this process is phased out in favor of cleaner natural gas based processes for ethylene production, these medium-length hydrocarbons are becoming increasingly volatile in price with shortages and increased foreign imports. Alternative technologies for manufacturing these hydrocarbons are expensive, resulting in substantial market uncertainty. Visolis is addressing this supply problem by developing novel engineered microbes to convert organic waste into C5 hydrocarbons. These products can be used to make high performance polymers as well as for direct blending into existing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel with a simple and inexpensive chemical transformation. The key technology developed under the grant is a microorganism capable of digesting organic waste to produce useful hydrocarbons, and with full development our process will produce the target chemical at half the current market price from renewable sources while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Obtaining sustainable sources of chemicals and processing organic waste in an environmentally responsible manner remains a challenge. This proposal aims to solve these problems by converting organic waste into a chemical with use in polymer industry.