NREL Teams with Navy, Cobalt Technologies, Show Me Energy to Make Jet Fuel from Switchgrass
In Colorado, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is partnering with Cobalt Technologies, U.S. Navy, and Show Me Energy Cooperative to demonstrate that jet fuel can be made economically and in large quantities from a renewable biomass feedstock such as switchgrass. NREL’s pretreatment reactor and enzymatic digester reactors will process switchgrass into fermentable sugars. NREL’s 9,000-liter fermenters will then produce butanol from the sugars using Cobalt Technologies’ proprietary microorganisms and fermentation process.
A co-exclusive patent license agreement between the Navy and Cobalt Technologies is providing the technology and expertise for converting the butanol to jet fuel. Show Me Energy Cooperative of Centerville, Mo., will provide the switchgrass feedstock.
“At NREL, we can take biomass feedstock, convert it to biofuels and scale it up in our pilot plant, in this case converting it to butanol,” NREL Senior Project Leader for Partnership Development Rich Bolin said. “The (test) runs we did last year with Cobalt Technologies producing butanol at our pilot plant were quite successful.” The process is expected to result in a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the current production of jet fuel.
Category: Fuels
