TetraVitae's process to produce n-butanol in a corn dry-mill plant is demonstrated successfully

In Illinois, TetraVitae announced it has completed a successful demonstration of its process to produce renewable n-butanol in a corn dry-mill pilot plant.  The demonstration is a milestone in creating economically competitive renewable n-butanol for the coatings, plastics, personal care, and packaging industries.  In the demonstration, TetraVitae worked with The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center to retrofit NCERC’s fully integrated corn dry-mill pilot plant to enable it to run TetraVitae’s technology.  TetraVitae reports that the technology performed as expected, producing n-butanol, acetone, and distillers grains.  The demonstration shows that a corn dry-mill can be retrofitted to efficiently produce n-butanol.  In addition, TetraVitae has demonstrated product purification. Working with the University of Texas in Austin’s Separations Research Program, the company took the raw chemical products produced at NCERC and produced purified n-butanol and acetone in a continuous distillation. The products meet standard chemical industry specifications for solvents.

More on the story.