(318e) Unlocking Biomass Energy: Process Development and Scale-up of Biomass Conversion to Advanced Fuels and Chemicals

The sustainable production of both biofuels and bioproducts depends largely on the efficient and cost effective access to biomass conversion technologies. Due to the physical and chemical complexities of plant based biomass, the conversion process typically includes thermochemical pretreatment, enzymatic saccharification and microbial fermentation. This presentation will highlight the process development we have demonstrated in converting different types of biomass to fermentable sugars and fuel intermediates through various approaches. The scaling up challenges associated with some case studies will be addressed. An overview of the novel technologies, markets and substrate accessibility via efficient biomass utilization will be discussed. The research demonstrates how biomass conversion and upgrading via bioprocessing can influence key pathways to address global environmental sustainability barriers. Both technical and economic challenges of the conversion process will be discussed to provide some perspectives for future process development and optimization.