Bio-based fuels and plastics
Objectives
Avantium aims to develop biofuels with superior process economics and properties that should overcome the issues related to the first- and second-generation biofuels. Ultimately, Avantium's ambition is to develop biofuels that can compete with fossil-based fuels.
Based on its unique approach and vast experience in catalyst discovery and optimization, Avantium is working on developing an economically attractive catalytic process aimed at unlocking the potential of bio-based furanics. For this program, Avantium is advised by an independent scientific advisory board consisting of top-tier industry professionals and scientists.
Avantium has focused this project on the development of furan-based products, or "furanics", which are heteroaromatic compounds derived from a key intermediate molecule called HMF, or hydroxyl-methyl-furfural. As the precursor of many valuable building blocks, HMF has in fact been known and widely studied for decades. But no economically attractive method of producing the molecule has yet been developed. By using its catalytic process development platform, Avantium has been able to find new and improved catalytic routes to specific furanics. The company successfully performed engine tests that prove the usability of these furanics as a biofuel. Avantium was the first to claim the use of these furanics as a fuel.
With its fuels program, Avantium aims to develop a new generation of biofuels that leverages the beneficial properties of bio-based furanics:
- Process economics that are superior to first- and second-generation biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel and, ultimately, competitive to oil-based fuels;
- Superior fuel energy density, or kilometers per liter and the ability to blend with oil-derived diesel and gasoline or other biofuels.
In addition to developing furanics-based fuels, Avantium is also developing building blocks for plastics. As an example, the production of bio-based monomers for the production of polyesters, such as PET, presents an attractive opportunity because of the strong growth of these markets. Avantium works together with partners on the application development of its plastics. Avantium's plastics have attractive properties and production economics with the potential to replace traditional plastics in many existing applications.