Sustainable aviation fuels are increasingly in demand, as they are comparable in performance to traditional jet fuels but reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can be made using renewable resources. However, producing these fuels is a tricky biological process. Some important aviation fuel molecules are volatile, meaning they evaporate at room temperature.
To address this challenge, the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU), a research facility funded by Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), collaborated with BETO’s Bioprocessing Separations Consortium, Argonne National Laboratory, and Amyris Inc., a leading synthetic biology company, to develop new experimental setups and technologies to advance volatile product capture.
Together, the four partners were able to produce and purify samples with energy densities comparable to leading jet fuel formulations, and their system was successful in recovering volatile compounds saving both time and money. Learn more about this research on the Bioprose: Bioenergy R&D blog.
