The Materials Superhighway
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) New physical materials — stronger than steel, stiffer than Kevlar, lightweight, conductive, non-toxic, and highly absorbent. New liquid fuels and chemicals — strong on performance, price, and emissions. New edible materials — lighter in unhealthy fats, and delivering more targeted nutritional benefit with fewer side effects from obesity to diabetes.
A revolution in physical materials is occurring — aimed ultimately at displacing and competing with all physical commodities, such as steel, aluminum, chromium, plastics, crops, fuels and chemicals — a process which has already begun and will substantially accelerate in this generation — of which advanced fuels, chemicals, bioproducts and advanced food and feed are the earliest signs.
The Superhighway includes thousands of replacement molecules that are just now making it into the market. These are platform technologies that have been licensed or invested in by virtually every major oil, chemical, steel, and automotive producer.
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Superhighway will be technically powered by a revolution in the cost and speed of genetic sequencing and will be driven by performance.
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The revolution in materials is ultimately an outcome of the Digital Revolution — but is based in physical materials with lower-cost, lower-weight, higher tensile strength, improved energy density, improved handling, reduced carbon footprint, and diversified sourcing. 3D printing, nanocellulose, aerogels, graphene, and synthetic spider silks are just a handful of the new materials.
Who’s doing what
Companies like Amyris, Solazyme, LanzaTech, NatureWorks, Genomatica, Rennovia, Verdezyne, Rivertop Renewables, Green Biologics, Gevo and many others are examples of companies developing products for the Materials Superhighway.
Some will be used for energy, some for food and feed, some for temporary or permanent structures including replacement for plastics and metals. Many will be made from sugars, many from methane.
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As we speculated in 2011 in The Digest, “Could microbes ultimately be taught a whole range of otherwise artificial chemical pathways? Right now, there’s emphasis on using microbes to ferment a basic oil or alcohol, followed by upgrading to a more valuable material through more conventional petrochemical processes. But, what about direct production, through advanced synthetic biology. It’s something that Solazyme works on, and LanzaTech is now embarking on. Where will it take us? Polyethylene fibers spun by micro-spiders? Silk-and-steel hybrids milked continuously from CO-munching e.coli? Microbes that scrub ambient CO2 and eat natural gas, to produce exotic, hyper compressible fuels with energy densities far beyond today’s molecules? Well, we get ahead of ourselves.”
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Technical obstacles in existing pre-treatment processes include insufficient separation of cellulose and lignin, formation of by-products that inhibit downstream fermentation, high use of chemicals and/or energy, high costs for enzymes (although falling rapidly), and high capital costs for pre-treatment facilities. Opportunities, barriers and mitigations are discussed for each of the different pre-treatment technologies, along with TRL and developer activities. READ MORE
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