I-Corps: Catalytic Membrane Reactor for Commercial Production of Biomass-Derived Fuel and Fuel Additives

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛影响是开发可再生能源和化学品的替代来源，以帮助解决全世界日益增长的能源需求。它将为可再生能源和化学中间体提供一种新的、丰富的来源，并具有长期的影响。从可再生的廉价资源（如废弃作物）中开发这些平台化学品，可以通过利用新的起始材料来影响化学工业的经济。这项工作的技术突破将使生物基产品得到更广泛的采用。I-Corps项目的基础是开发使用催化膜反应器生产平台化学品的技术。该技术的重点是同时催化水解，脱水和再水化可再生生物质的生物基平台化学品和生物燃料。该技术中使用的进料是木质纤维素生物质而不是常规单体作为起始材料，从而显著降低了原料成本。具有竞争力的热化学和基于酶的技术具有主要缺点，例如高能量需求，高酶成本，并且涉及多个复杂的加工步骤。此外，比较性化学转化方法使用腐蚀性酸或昂贵的离子液体，这对于当今的工业规范是不可接受的。该技术使用无毒、廉价、耐用且易于再生的酶模拟催化剂，使用精心选择的溶剂系统有效地催化多个反应，具有高的所需产物产率。此外，所提出的技术使用有助于同时催化和分离产物的膜过程来强化，从而改变热力学平衡，防止产物分解。先前的基础研究表明，所提出的催化膜可以转化生物质中的纤维素和半纤维素部分，这为未来专注于生产多种其他产品的开发提供了可能性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this I-Corps project is to develop an alternative source of renewable energy and chemicals to help address the worldwide increasing demands for energy. It will provide a new and abundant source of renewable energy and chemical intermediates with long-term effects. Development of these platform chemicals from renewable cheaper resources, such as waste crops, can impact the economics of the chemical industry by leveraging new starting materials. Technology breakthroughs from this work will enable broader adoption of bio-based products.This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology for production of platform chemicals using a catalytic membrane reactor. The technology focuses on simultaneous catalytic hydrolysis, dehydration, and rehydration of renewable biomass to bio-based platform chemicals and biofuels. The feed used in this technology is lignocellulosic biomass instead of conventional monomers as starting materials accounting for significant feedstock cost reduction. The competitive thermochemical and enzyme-based technology have major disadvantages such as high energy demand, high cost of enzymes, and involves multiple complex processing steps. Further, comparative chemical conversion processes use corrosive acids or expensive ionic liquids which are unacceptable with present day industrial norms. The technology uses non-toxic, inexpensive, robust, and easily regenerable enzyme-mimicked catalyst efficiently catalyzes multiple reactions with high desired product yield using carefully selected solvent system. Furthermore, the proposed technology is intensified using membrane process that helps in simultaneous catalysis and separation of the products shifting the thermodynamic equilibrium preventing product decomposition. Previous fundamental research has shown that the proposed catalytic membrane can convert both cellulose and hemicellulose part of the biomass, which opens the possibility of future developments that focus on production of multiple other products.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.