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Biochemicals: The First Steps Toward Commercialization

Posted by Stephen Locker | December 2, 2014

Biochemicals: The First Steps Toward Commercialization

November 12, 2014 

View the recording at http://breeze.wsu.edu/p2zekeeta7d/ or https://youtu.be/3CkcXOBvbJ8

Bio-based chemicals, produced during the conversion pathway to biofuels, offer more immediate market opportunities for emerging biofuel industries in the Pacific Northwest. The Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest project is furthering research into the sustainability of bio-based chemicals and biofuels produced from poplar trees through an extensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis of acetic acid production. An LCA is an invaluable tool for estimating environmental impacts of production processes. Techno-economic modeling studies the dynamics of a project in both technical and economic terms.

In this webinar Dr. Rick Gustafson, Erik Budsberg, and Jordan Crawford from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington, summarize previous biofuel assessments and cover up-to-date work on acetic acid production.

What’s covered? 

  • The latest research on producing both fuel and chemicals, such as acetic acid
  • Life Cycle Assessments summarizing the environmental impact of biofuel and bio-based chemical production
  • Techno-economic modeling featuring the dynamics of the AHB project

Presenters:  Rick Gustafson, Erik Budsberg, and Jordan Crawford from the University of Washington

Sponsored by:   Washington State University Extension with funding from Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grant no. 2011-68005-30407 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).