Research

The following scientific paper and conference presentations cover a large fraction of the BIOCTANE research results.

Research Paper

Aviation fuel production pathways from lignocellulosic biomass via alcohol intermediates – A technical analysis

In order to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, also the growing aviation industry needs to take measures to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Various renewably sourced aviation fuels can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and most of them, except for example liquid hydrogen or LNG, can be used in the existing infrastructure without airport or aircraft modifications. As most of these renewably sourced fuel types are not (yet) produced at commercial scale, many technological assessment parameter (e.g. carbon or energy efficiency) are uncertain. Thus, the goal of this study is to compare two different process routes, both being based on biochemical and thermochemical conversion steps. The processes evaluated against conversion efficiency of the available raw feedstock and process energy requirements. The evaluation uses theoretical and biochemical carbon efficiency as well as energy efficiency as indicators. A steady-state flowsheet simulation for two biogenic process paths via biogas and bioethanol as intermediate products is carried out on the basis of literature data. In addition, the optional use of solid residue from the biotechnological process step by combustion for direct heat supply cases are studied. In the ethanol-based route, about 23% of the carbon in the feed can be recovered as kerosene, whereas this is only about 19% in the biogas route. Simultaneously, the ethanol-based route without the combustion of the residue has an energy efficiency of 28%, while the biogas route has an efficiency of 24%.

Strain and model development for auto- and heterotrophic 2,3-butanediol production using Cupriavidus necator H16

The production of platform chemicals from renewable energy sources is a crucial step towards a post-fossil economy. This study reports on the production of acetoin and 2,3-butanediol heterotrophically with fructose as substrate and autotrophically from CO2 as carbon source, H2 as electron donor and O2 as electron acceptor with Cupriavidus necator. In a previous study, the strain was developed for the production of acetoin with high carbon efficiency. Acetoin can serve as a precursor for the synthesis of 2,3-butanediol by the integration of a butanediol dehydrogenase. In this study, different plasmid backbones and butanediol dehydrogenases were evaluated regarding efficiency for CO2-based 2,3-butanediol production. The developed strain utilizes the pBBR1 plasmid bearing a 2,3-butanediol dehydrogenase from Enterobacter cloacae and is characterized by 2,3-butanediol as the main product and a heterotrophic total product yield of 88.11%, an autotrophic volumetric productivity of 39.45 mg L−1 h−1, a total product carbon yield of 81.6%, an H2 efficiency of 33.46%, and a specific productivity of 0.016 g product per gram of biomass per hour. In addition, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the processes under these conditions. With this model, it was possible to calculate productivities and substrate usage at distinct time points of the production processes and calculate productivities and substrate usage with high resolution which will be useful in future applications.

Conference Presentations