S154: Challenges and Progress in the Rapid Commercial Development of Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals

It is widely recognized that sustainable replacements for fossil fuels and chemicals are urgently needed.  By harnessing the efficiency of fatty acid biosynthesis and employing an engineering strategy that places all chemical unit operations within a single whole cell catalyst and allows easy product recovery, LS9 has enabled efficient biosynthetic routes and processes to a diversity of sustainable fuels and chemicals, including esters, alcohols, alkenes, and alkanes.  These products can be used as drop-in compatible fuels or can serve as tailored feedstocks for a variety of specialty chemicals and fuels.

The industrial production of such sustainable fuels and chemicals depends on rapid progress in developing microbial strains and bioprocesses that achieve commercially viable yields and productivities. This presentation will highlight some of the challenges, different approaches and examples of recent progress in the production of fatty acid-derived fuels and chemicals.