Biofuels from corn derived sugar were initially seen as beneficial, environmentally and in reducing the reliance on petrochemical fuels. Recently, this situation has changed and the use of “food-sugar” for  biofuel production has become contentious. Now there is a push to replace first generation biofuels with non-food-sugar or photosynthetically derived biofuels.

Replacing petroleum transport fuels with “bio-based” alternatives is only one way to decrease reliance on oil. There are other products, plastics, wrappings and even food ingredients that are manufactured from petrochemicals and could be replaced with bio-based products.MBI is a non-profit organization and a key participant in Michigan State University’s Bio-collaborate Enterprise. MBI’s mission is to bridge the gap between invention and commercial application, using a disciplined de-risking strategy that transforms an early-stage discovery into a validated technology package (at pilot scale) that meets performance, cost, and quality criteria.

This presentation will discuss MBI technology addressing the provision of non-food carbon sources and the production of bio-based chemical feedstocks to replace petro-chemically derived products. Combination of these technologies can pave the way to sustainable bio-based products that have a greatly improved environmental footprint.

AFEX (Ammonia Fiber EXpansion) is a pretreatment for multiple lignocellulosic agricultural products that facilitates efficient enzyme hydrolysis to fermentable sugars (C5 and C6). This process has several differentiating features from other chemical treatments that give AFEX treated materials beneficial properties.