Chromatin Inc., a developer of energy crop feedstock solutions, announced Jan. 4 the award of a $5.7 million contract under the PETRO (Plants Engineered to Replace Oil) program of the U.S. DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

The award will fund a three-year program to develop new varieties of sweet sorghum for use as an energy-rich, low-cost feedstock for transportation fuels.

“Building on our success deploying our proprietary technology that can add multiple sets of genes to sorghum, we are able to produce sorghum varieties that meet the specific needs of renewable energy producers,” said Dave Jessen, Chromatin’s chief technology officer. “In collaboration with academic and industry experts, this award will accelerate Chromatin’s optimization of sorghum as a feedstock for drop-in biofuels and energy-rich replacements for coal and petroleum.”

Chromatin is working to develop nonfood varieties of sorghum that have higher energy content making it ideal for the production of low-cost and renewable transportation fuel, high-value chemicals and a high-Btu source of biopower. Sorghum can produce tremendous biomass yields with less water and fewer chemical inputs than major food crops and on land that is not devoted to food production.

Virent’s Plant-BAsed Paraxylene Paves the Way for a 100% Bio-PET Bottle

Virent and The Coca-Cola Company announced today they have entered into a new strategic partnership to accelerate the commercialization of renewable, recyclable materials for beverage packaging. The companies have signed multi-year, multi-million dollar Joint Development and Supply Agreements to scale-up Virent’s plant-based Paraxylene (PX), trademarked BioFormPX™, as a route to commercially viable, 100% renewable, 100% recyclable PlantBottle™ PET resin. Virent’s BioFormPX will be used in Coca-Cola’s existing supply chain to make 100% bio-based PTA that will be mixed with biobased MEG to produce PlantBottle™ PET Resin with 100% bio-based content.

“The Coca-Cola Company’s commitment to provide its customers with PlantBottle™ packaging made from 100% renewable and recyclable materials is a bold example of visionary brand leadership,” said Lee Edwards, CEO of Virent. “I am delighted that Virent’s partnership with Coca-Cola will play a significant role in achieving this vision.”

“While the technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has been available for years, we believe Virent is a company that possesses technologies that have high potential for creating them on a global commercial scale within the next few years,” said Rick Frazier, Vice President, Commercial Product Supply, The Coca-Cola Company. “This is a significant R&D investment in packaging innovation and is the next step toward our vision of creating all of our plastic packaging from responsibly sourced plant-based materials.”

Virent and The Coca-Cola Company will rapidly progress both development and engineering under this effort, with Virent targeting 2015 for the first commercial plant opening. The majority of the PX produced from Virent’s first plant will be allocated for purchase by The Coca-Cola Company’s supply chain partners for the Company’s product packaging. Virent will reserve the remainder of the BioFormPXTM for market development in complementary PET and polyester applications.

The world’s largest soft-drink maker introduced the PlantBottle™ packaging in 2009, which consists of a conventional plastic made with up to 30 percent plant-based material. Since that time, The Coca-Cola Company has aggressively sought viable plant-based options for the remaining 70 percent of the material. Virent’s BioFormPX™ product will allow Coca-Cola to offer its customers up to 100% renewable, 100% recyclable bottles which can be processed through existing manufacturing and recycling facilities.

About Virent

Virent is replacing crude oil by creating the chemicals and fuels the world demands using a wide range of naturally-occurring, renewable resources. Their patented technology features catalytic chemistry to convert plant-based sugars and agricultural residues into a full range of products identical to those made from petroleum, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and chemicals for plastics and fibers. The products are “drop-in” replacements that enable full utilization of existing logistics infrastructure without blending limitations. The development of Virent’s BioForming® technology platform is supported through strategic investors including Cargill, Shell and Honda, as well as 120 employees based in Madison, Wisconsin.

In this extended version of the talk from our latest issue, we speak with Mary Tilton, VP of plant operations at Virent, which is using chemistry to turn plants into fuel.

Photo by Saverio Truglia

“We are replacing crude oil. We’re using catalytic chemistry to manipulate the carbon-oxygen bonds of sugars and other bio-derived materials to turn them into hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals. That same catalytic chemistry can take plant materials and turn them into the components of crude oil, which include the chemicals for plastics. We now have a material that is exactly like what you burn in a vehicle, which is an advantage because it can go right into the distribution pipeline. The only difference between our fuel and gasoline from crude oil is that our carbon is new, whereas the carbon in crude oil is millions of years old. The fuels we’ve generated have been used in Shell’s fleet test.”

Fast Company: How did the company get started?

Mary Tilton: The technology was first developed at the University of Wisconsin in Madison by our founder, Randy Cortright. Originally, we focused on hydrogen generation, and the company was founded to commercialize that technology. Sometime around 2005 we realized the catalytic processes we were using could be tailored to make hydrocarbon fuels. So our focus shifted and became looking into using sugars to make gasoline. That’s what we really concentrated on in 2008 when we embarked on the scale-up and decided to go to 10,000 gallons a year. We found we were very successful at taking standard sugar and converting it to gasoline. We demonstrated scalability in 2009, which was an important milestone.

Where does the feedstock come from?

So far, we’ve purchased our feedstock from a very large agricultural supplier. We’re partnering and working with various companies to further develop that source. We have partners engaged in both the upstream and downstream, which is one of our key strengths as a company. We’re sort of in the middle of things: We’re working very closely with Cargill on the upstream side of things for feedstock availability, and then on the downstream side we’re working very closely with Shell. We have a unique technology, and we need to position ourselves to be able to work on larger projects, such as the question of where you get feedstock, and our partners help us do that.

Are there any downsides to making fuel in a lab as opposed to getting it in the form of petroleum from the earth?

We all believe in the companies we work for, but as an independent observer, I cannot think of a technical pitfall of it. I seriously, truly cannot. It’s important, though, to consider using non-food materials, like corn stover, for instance, and wood products that are renewable. The challenge is always how you get the digestible materials out. Plants have been creating their barrier to destruction for many, many years, and it’s going to take some very good science to be able to liberate those sugars.

Does it take a lot of energy to actually turn these feedstocks into usable fuels?

We’ve engaged in all the life-cycle analyses for what it takes to bring biomass materials into a facility to convert them–what the energy consumption is. Our technology process is relatively low energy, and at the end, it’s energy neutral. It is definitely not consuming more energy than you would get out of the fuel. All of those energy balances are in our favor.

What will it take for people to start using biofuels?

It’ll require a lot of capital for this to take off. This hasn’t been a very friendly economy for large investments. The material itself for the end product needs to be competitive with the price of consumer fuel. We’re looking at a commodity market, and I know consumers aren’t hungry to pay more even if they believe it’s a good product. The material needs to be cost competitive. The advantage of drop-in fuel is you don’t have to make a lot of change in the infrastructure. Our product is just like what you’re using, except it has a lower carbon footprint. It can go into the distribution pipeline and be put in pumps right now without changing tanks.

Chromatin, Inc., a developer of energy-crop feedstocks, today said it has used its proprietary mini-chromosome technology to enable the improvement of sorghum with multiple new sets of genes. This is a major milestone in Chromatin’s program to customize sorghum to meet the specialized needs of power, fuel and chemical producers.

Using its mini-chromosome technology, Chromatin was able to simultaneously introduce multiple genes into a plant cell on an independent chromosome without impacting the host genome. In contrast, more traditional crop transformation technologies usually introduce only a single gene, or limited numbers of genes, and involve disrupting the plant’s genome when introduced.

“We are focused on enhancing sorghum feedstocks to increase yields and enhance the quality of fuel, power, and chemical production,” said David Jessen, Chromatin’s Chief Technology Officer. “In addition to a robust crop breeding program, the ability to add a large number of genes with our proprietary mini-chromosome platform makes it possible to enhance sorghum in a controllable and efficient way.”

Chromatin demonstrated its sorghum mini-chromosome technology by inserting a gene “stack” into a sweet sorghum line. Sweet sorghum, much like sugarcane, produces ample quantities of sugar-rich juice that can be used by processors to generate fuels and renewable chemicals. Sorghum can be grown today from the tropics to temperate regions, on marginal lands not ideal for food production and under harsh growing conditions. In addition to enhancing sweet sorghum, mini-chromosome technology can be used to modify other sorghum types, including grain and forage sorghums.

“As we examined several different sorghum lines containing mini-chromosomes, we were pleased to see that the gene stacks behaved as expected,” commented Otto Folkerts, Director of Transgenic Programs at Chromatin. “We are confident that we can create new sorghum hybrids that carry the genes needed for improvement, while keeping the native host genome intact.”

Chromatin also has licensed its proprietary mini-chromosome technology to leading international agriculture companies working on corn, soybeans, cotton and sugarcane.

About Chromatin:

Chromatin, Inc. is developing renewable energy-crop feedstocks for power, fuel and chemical producers. It also is developing expertise in the supply chains to serve energy fuel and chemical producers and is serving growers by developing high-value next-generation sorghum seeds using its proprietary crop- breeding technology and biotechnology programs. The company licenses its innovative gene-stacking technologies to support the crop-breeding programs of leading agriculture companies, and it applies these technology platforms to its subsidiary, Sorghum Partners LLC, which produces and markets hybrid sorghum seeds to growers in the US and more than 20 other countries. Chromatin is privately owned and based in Chicago. For additional information, please visit www.chromatininc.com

Researchers at Chromatin, Inc. are working with area farmers to evaluate the feasibility of growing biologically engineered sorghum as a biofuel.

For generations, local ranchers have grown feedstock as an economical source of food for their livestock. Now some local ranchers are looking to grow feedstock too in order to provide fuel.

Two area ranchers, one in Holbrook and one in Snowflake, are each providing approximately 20 acres for the growth of a sweet sorghum grass for Chromantin, Inc., a Chicago biotech company researching the use of biologically engineered sorghum as a source of alternative fuel.

Ken Davenport, vice president of strategic development for Chromatin, explained that the objective is to create a higher BTU (British thermal unit) sweet sorghum that can be used as an alternative to coal burning fuels.

“We’re looking to grow and deliver green coal, green oil with the sorghum, which has a higher energy content than corn or winter wheat,” he said.

The reason for selecting the northern Arizona region to test this product is due to the two factors of quality and yield.

“It (sorghum) grows best at relatively high temperatures and grows well in conditions of limited moisture,” explained Davenport.

The testing also includes test burning the product at Snowflake Power, the biomass power plant that uses wood chips from forest thinnings as well as nearby paper mill sludge for fuel.

The company was the recent recipient of a $5.7 million grant from the PETRO (Plants Engineered To Replace Oil) program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). The funds will be used to develop sweet sorghum varieties that will be used as drop-in biofuels or as energy-rich replacements for coal in biopower. With this award, the company will be working to increase the fuel value of sorghum.

This was the first year that a crop of sorghum was harvested for the test. The company plans to test the burn of the sorghum plant with a new crop each year as the research continues.

“We’ll look at 2012 for sealing up development, then may approach other utilities outside of Snowflake. We’ll look at the data then perhaps scale up the effort in 2013,” explained Davenport, who added that the company is enjoying the opportunity to work with the people of Snowflake/Taylor, as well as the growers.

Virent Expects To Add Jobs, Build New Plant

Virent Inc., the energy company that makes plant-based jet fuel, has won a second federal grant to expand its business and hire new workers.

The Federal Aviation Administration awarded the company about $1.5 million to produce larger quantities of fuel for studies on commercial aircraft, Virent leaders told WISC-TV. The company earlier won $13.4 million from the Department of Energy for a separate project to make a similar product for military fighter jets.

The announcements will add about 15 new jobs and allow Madison-based Virent to build another fuel plant. The nine-year-old company’s growth comes as other startup firms seeking outside investment find few opportunities.

“People in the U.S. government see this as possible,” Virent founder and chief technology officer Randy Cortright said. “And it gives us money, which is good as well.”

The U.S. military is interested in the plant-based fuel as it looks to move away from petroleum, which is often subject to Middle Eastern unrest, Cortright said.

It’s taken Virent leaders about five years to develop a process to turn farm products, such as corn stalks and kernels, into jet fuel. It involves extracting the starches and sugars, then pairing them with a chemical catalyst to create the proper mix.

The company still relies on outside investment, as do many startup firms, said Dan Olszewski, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship.

“Raising money for these startups is as challenging as it’s been in years,” Olszewski said. “We definitely have a lot of ideas coming out of the area, and capital is one of the areas where the state has been lagging.”

Gov. Scott Walker promised to make venture capital an important part of a special session on job creation, but legislative leaders and a work group failed to compromise on the plan.

While not all companies are worthy of investment, many rely on those outside funds to bring products to market, Olszewski said.

“Entrepreneurs are really a critical component of the economy, especially important if you look at the jobs picture,” he said.

Wisconsin’s 7.8 percent unemployment rate in September remained near a 30-year high. The state has lost more jobs than it has gained since the start of the year, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Virent’s federal grants will help the company add employees to its 115-person workforce, but it might look beyond Madison to build its new facility, Cortright said. The company, which began through research at the University of Wisconsin, will stay in the Midwest, he said.

“Wisconsin is an agricultural state,” he said. “We are going to provide opportunities for land owners, whether it be farmers for corn or people in northern Wisconsin that have a significant amount of wood.”

RenewableEnergyWorld.com
By Heather Lammers, NREL

Ever since the Wright brothers took their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, the aviation industry has been looking for ways to fly further faster. Now with the help of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Virent, Inc. and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), planes may soon take to the skies using less petroleum.

In June, DOE announced an award of up to $13.4 million dollars to Virent and its partners to develop a process to cost effectively convert cellulosic biomass — in this case the non-edible parts of corn — into jet fuel.

Senior Technician Bill Bray (front) and Master Technician Bob Lyons (back) and inspect and service the biomass pretreatment reactor in NREL's Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility. DOE recently announced an award of up to $13.4 million dollars to Virent, NREL, and partners, to develop a process to cost effectively convert cellulosic biomass into jet fuel. Credit: Dennis Schroeder

“Projects such as these are helping us to diversify our energy portfolio and decrease our dependence on foreign oil,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the announcement. “Together with our partners, the Department is working hard to expand the clean energy economy, creating jobs in America and providing sustainable replacements for the fuels and products now provided primarily by petroleum.”

“This is all about making drop-in fuels or infrastructure-compatible fuels,” NREL Manager for Bioprocess R&D Richard Elander said. “These are fuels that are close, if not identical, to the same molecules that are in gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel. They are compatible with our existing vehicles and infrastructure in terms of engines, fueling and pipelines.”

It’s Not the Same Lignocellulosic Conversion

It is important to note that the end result of the combined NREL-to-Virent lignocellulosic conversion process is not ethanol. While ethanol is a reasonable substitute for gasoline, is not a substitute for jet fuel due to ethanol’s lower energy density and other properties required for jet fuel.

Virent's Group Leader of Project and Data Management Lisa Kamke is shown at Virent's facility. Virent will take the hydrolysates produced in NREL's Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility and use a proprietary catalytic conversion technology to make jet fuel. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Virent

“Rather than fermenting corn stover into ethanol, in this scenario, the biomass is appropriately deconstructed and then catalytically converted into energy dense hydrocarbon molecules that are indistinguishable from petroleum based jet fuel,” Virent Senior Director for Feedstock Development Andrew Held said.

Idaho National Laboratory will provide the corn stover for the experiments. NREL will then use acid or other chemicals to pre-treat and deconstruct the biomass, creating a new compound, or hydrolysate, containing sugars and other forms of soluble carbon.

“One of the interesting features of the Virent technology is, not only can they uses simple sugars, they can also use slightly longer chain sugars, plus they can also use some of the ‘undesirable’ products from when we over-treat the biomass,” Elandar said.

Over-treating happens in the lingocellulosic conversion process because the biomass has to be broken down enough to get to the hard-to-reach sugars. The process is not perfect, so some of those sugars can be over-treated and become sugar degradation products. According to Elander, “This particular process has the opportunity to use a wider range of sugars and other soluble carbon compounds that are generated in the deconstruction process than we’ve traditionally been able to, which is a good thing because it means potentially higher yields.”

Virent will take the hydrolysates produced in NREL’s Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility (IBRF) and use a proprietary catalytic conversion technology to make the final jet fuel. “We remove the oxygen to make the deconstructed biomass more amenable to further processing, ultimately turning the hydrolysates into the same hydrocarbons that make up ordinary jet fuel,” Held said.

While NREL has an important role in the agreement in deconstructing the quantities of biomass needed for the project, the lab has two other equally important tasks. First, NREL will perform techno-economic analysis of the project to make sure it is financially feasible in the long run, and second, NREL will study the fundamentals properties of catalysts used in the process.

“One of the challenges that has to be demonstrated by Virent is the lifetime of their catalyst,” Elander said. “The only way to prove that a catalyst will last a long time is to run it for a long time. In order to run it for a long time, they are going to need a large quantity of deconstructed biomass to put through. NREL’s IBRF will come into play to generate several tons for this process. We can then gauge how the catalyst behaves. ”

Looking for More Partners

NREL recently completed the second phase of a $33.5 million upgrade to the IBRF. The facility is unique in its ability to handle a wide range of biomass feedstocks and pretreatment processes. Three parallel pretreatment processing trains allow for the testing of conversion processes using differing technologies under a wide range of conditions. The IBRF can handle high concentrations of solids in the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis steps, a key factor in reducing costs. In addition, NREL has fuel testing capabilities and facilities and is a recognized leader in techno-economic and life cycle analyses.

NREL's versatile Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility will be a key factor in helping Virent pretreat corn stover for conversion into jet fuel. NREL and DOE are looking for more partners to help speed the integration of drop-in fuels in to our country's existing infrastructure. Photo Credit: Dennis Schroeder

“Virent has been very impressed with the technical capabilities of NREL as a result of our work with the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium,” said Held. “When we were planning a project to put to together for this DOE award, we thought NREL’s team would be a very good fit in terms of supplying us feedstock materials needed for Virent’s catalytic conversion technology.”

NREL and DOE are looking for more partners like Virent to help speed the integration of drop-in fuels into America’s existing infrastructure.

“I think the DOE is appropriately trying to encourage national labs and private parties to work together,” Held said. “This project embodies top-notch experience and capability at a national lab with a promising company that is moving forward with innovative technology.”

The IBRF’s new equipment and facilities, including 27,000 square feet of high bay space, can support unparallel research flexibility for industrial partners. Industry partners can bring in new technologies or processes into the IBRF to evaluate them in an integrated biorefinery setting. NREL has state-of-the-art laboratories that enhance its capabilities in fermentation, analytical chemistry, biomass conversion, molecular biology, and thermochemistry. For companies looking to collaborate with NREL, the pretreatment processing trains, fermentation capabilities, and new labs can be reconfigured to meet the project’s needs.

“Ultimately, by leveraging the investments DOE has made in the IBRF and NREL, industry partners can develop biofuels and bioproduct conversion processes and technologies faster in order to enter markets sooner and more profitably,” Elander said.

Heather Lammers represents the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in its Public Affairs Office. She splits her time between communicating with the media and writing stories that feature the work of the lab, which is vital in providing energy solutions to the nation. NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.

This article originally appeared as a National Renewable Energy Laboratory feature article and was reprinted with permission.