Catalytic Technologies
ChemCatBio's research and development on catalytic technologies builds a scientific understanding of specific conversion pathways. Explore ChemCatBio's complete R&D portfolio.
The presentations below were reviewed by industry, academia, and federal agencies as part of the biannual BETO Peer Review process. ChemCatBio began participating in this review process in 2017, one year after the consortium was formed.
Active Projects
Catalytic Upgrading of Biochemical Intermediates
Improve the catalytic upgrading of targeted biochemically derived intermediates to hydrocarbon fuels and chemical coproducts by performing focused and integrated R&D.
2023 Catalytic Upgrading of Biochemical Intermediates BETO Peer Review
2021 Catalytic Upgrading of Biochemical Intermediates BETO Peer Review
2019 Catalytic Upgrading of Biochemical Intermediates BETO Peer Review
2017 Catalytic Upgrading of Biochemical Intermediates BETO Peer Review
Collaborators: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Los Alamos National Laboratory
Upgrading of C1 Building Blocks
Develop the centerpiece technology for a market-responsive, integrated biorefinery concept based on the conversion of renewable C1 intermediates to produce a suite of fuels with improved carbon efficiency, reduced capital expense, and control of the product distribution to meet market demand.
Note: This project was formed out of the 2019 Indirect Liquefaction Intermediates project to better align with industrial interest in upgrading CO2, synthesis gas, and platform chemicals like methanol.
Collaborators: NREL
Upgrading of C2 Intermediates
Develop efficient, cost-competitive technologies for converting C2 oxygenated intermediates such as ethanol into distillate fuels and valuable co-products.
2023 Upgrading of C2 Intermediates (PNNL) BETO Peer Review
2023 Upgrading of C2 Intermediates (ORNL) BETO Peer Review
Note: This project was formed out of the 2019 Indirect Liquefaction Intermediates project to better align with industrial interest in upgrading biomass-derived ethanol.
Collaborators: PNNL and ORNL
Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis
Maximize yields and minimize costs through integrated catalyst and process development; expand market responsiveness by developing routes to produce coproducts; provide experimental data to inform process modelling and scale-up activities; and support BETO goals of meeting 2022 verification cost and carbon intensity targets: ≤$3/gasoline gallon equivalent minimum fuel selling price, ≥60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
2023 Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis BETO Peer Review
2021 Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis BETO Peer Review
2019 Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis BETO Peer Review
2017 Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis BETO Peer Review
Collaborators: NREL and PNNL
Electrocatalytic CO2 Utilization
Enable stable and long-term operation of low-temperature CO2 electrolyzers by investigating scalable membrane-electrode-assembly architectures, studying catalyst and support degradation, and creating standard methods for testing and product quantification.
2023 Electrocatalytic CO2 Utilization BETO Peer Review
2021 Electrocatalytic CO2 Utilization BETO Peer Review
Collaborators: NREL
Completed Projects
Catalytic Upgrading of Indirect Liquefaction Intermediates
Develop a market-responsive biorefinery concept based on indirect liquefaction to enable control over the gasoline, diesel, jet, and coproduct distribution to address shifting gasoline/distillate fuel demand.
2019 Catalytic Upgrading of Indirect Liquefaction Intermediates BETO Peer Review
2017 Catalytic Upgrading of Indirect Liquefaction Intermediates BETO Peer Review
Note: this project was reorganized in 2021 into Upgrading of C1 and Upgrading of C2 projects to align with industrial interest.
Direct Catalytic Conversion of Cellulosics
Develop a semi-continuous solvolysis plus catalysis process to upgrade residual cellulosics from delignified biomass and demonstrate the resulting oxygenates are suitable as a biofuel.
2019 Direct Catalytic Conversion of Cellulosics BETO Peer Review
Collaborators: NREL
Fast Pyrolysis and Upgrading
Develop cost competitive biofuels through catalytic stabilization and deoxygenation of fast pyrolysis bio-oil.
2017 Fast Pyrolysis and Upgrading BETO Peer Review
Recovering and Upgrading Biogenic Carbon in Aqueous Waste Streams
Develop separation and conversion technologies for concentrating and valorizing aqueous phase biogenic carbon into value-added coproducts to reduce modeled biomass-derived fuel minimum fuel selling price by more than 5%.
2017 Recovering and Upgrading Biogenic Carbon in Aqueous Waste Streams BETO Peer Review
Collaborators: PNNL and NREL
