Renewable Fuel Production System (RFPS)

Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) propose to develop the Renewable Fuel Production System (RFPS), a system which will produce liquid alkene-based transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass. Specifically, we propose to investigate the production of levulinic acid (LA) and/or gamma-valerolactone (GVL) from lignocellulose; both of these platform chemicals are intermediates which serve as inputs to the catalytic production of butene. Our overall strategy relies on an efficient, high-yield process developed at UW-Madison to produce liquid alkene fuels from GVL, a derivative easily obtained from pure LA. Taken as a whole, this process is a promising roadmap for producing liquid transportation fuels from cellulosic biomass. However, it is currently limited in application by the availability of high-grade, low-cost LA and GVL. In the proposed work, we will focus on the production and purification of LA and/or GVL, with the intent of using these as inputs to the already-developed GVL-to-oligomers process. Our proposed research seeks improved options for the preparation and purification of LA and/or GVL that are effective, environmentally acceptable, and energetically efficient. This focus was selected because improved efficiency in this technology will have the greatest impact on the feasibility of cellulosic fuel production.