Advanced BioFuels USA

The conference is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and provides a unique platform for representatives from the bioenergy industry, Congress, state and federal agencies, national laboratories, academia, and the financial community to focus on opportunities to grow and achieve a stronger bioeconomy. The Clean Energy Research and Education Foundation (CEREF) is a lead partner for the conference, which attracts approximately 600 participants.

Vertimass was extended the invitation to present by James Spaeth, Program Manager, Demonstration & Market Transformation, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy on behalf of Dr. Jonathan Male, Director, BETO, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

John R. Hannon, PhD, Chief Operating Officer of Vertimass will present on the company’s new pathway to enhance use of biomass-derived renewable fuels.  Vertimass acquired the exclusive worldwide license of this novel approach invented at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to convert ethanol into gasoline blend stocks and higher value chemical coproducts (BTX).  In addition to achieving essentially complete conversion of ethanol into hydrocarbons, the Vertimass approach has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and U.S. reliance on foreign sources of oil. The technology allows ethanol producers to bypass the 10 percent “blend wall” for blending with gasoline and opens up new markets for ethanol for use in heavy duty vehicles and air travel as well as markets for valuable chemicals.

“We are delighted to be one of the four companies selected by the Department of Energy to present,” said Dr. Charles Wyman, Vertimass President and Chief Executive Officer. Chairman William Shopoff noted, “We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to showcase our green catalyst renewal fuels technology. We are very proud of the technology, which can be rapidly and inexpensively integrated into existing ethanol plants to help meet the goals of the Renewable Fuel Standard and also aid the Federal Aviation Administration in achieving their target of one billion gallons of renewable aviation fuel by 2018.”

In 2015, Vertimass received an award of $2 million by the U.S. Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Technology Office (BETO) to accelerate building the foundation to scale up this transformational technology for converting ethanol into hydrocarbons for blending with gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels.

Vertimass obtained the exclusive worldwide license to technology developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where scientists invented novel catalysts that convert a wide range of alcohols including ethanol and butanol into hydrocarbon blend stocks that can be used in existing gasoline, diesel, and jet engines without modifications. In addition, this process can produce renewable chemicals including benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX).  READ MORE