Atropha aims to make biofuels to withstand harsh climate

MHT - Mass High Tech - The Journal of New England Technology
Wednesday, October 21, 2009

In July, a state mandate kicks in requiring that 2 percent of all diesel fuel be composed of biofuels. That will increase by 1 percent every year for three years until it hits 5 percent. A similar mandate in Minnesota ran into problems last winter because biofuels cloud up and solidify. Chad Joshi, CEO of Atropha LLC, wants to keep that from happening again. “[Biofuels] work well in the tropics, but in cold weather you have problems,” Joshi said.

Vegetable oil-based biofuel molecules have lots of oxygen, which causes the fuel to cloud and thicken under 55 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the type. Atropha is developing an electrochemical process to break down the vegetable oil and deoxygenate its molecules, making it a viable fuel for environments as cold as 50 degrees below zero, Joshi said.

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Researchers discover new way to deoxygenize biomass

Biomass Magazine August 2009
By Lisa Gibson

University of California Berkeley and Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered a relatively inexpensive way to remove oxygen from biomass, which could pave the way for producing many of today’s petrochemical products from biomass.

The one-step deoxygenation technique is based on an existing formic acid treatment. Formic acid, a chemical found in bee venom, converts glycerol (a byproduct of biodiesel production) into allyl alcohol, which is used as a starting material in the production of polymers, drugs, organic compounds, herbicides and other chemical products. Today, allyl alcohol is produced from the oxidation of petroleum.

“Right now, about 5 percent of the world’s supply of petroleum is used to make feedstocks that are synthesized into commodity chemicals,” said Jonathan Ellman, UC Berkeley chemistry professor and a principal investigator in the research. “If these feedstocks can instead be made from biomass, they become renewable and their production will no longer be a detriment to the environment.” The process also can convert erythritol, obtained by the fermentation of glucose, to dihydrofuran, according to Ellman.

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