Researchers land $2.5M ARPA-E funding to innovate captured CO2-based chemical production

In New York state, with the support of a more than $2.5 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) of the Department of Energy, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will collaborate with colleagues at Stanford University and BioChemInsights Inc. to design an innovative chemical production process that ultimately incorporates CO2 captured from the atmosphere into the product, instead of releasing more into the environment.

Through this project, researchers will develop a cell-free process in which glucose derived from cornstarch or other renewable sources is combined with CO2 derived from the atmosphere or from CO2-producing industrial processes to produce succinic acid — a commodity chemical widely used in various applications. The process they develop, Koffas said, can then be adapted to other biochemical products, including biofuels, in a way that increases product yields, energy efficiency, and the productivity of the innovative facility.