The contract establishes Pall as a member of the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC), a federal initiative under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to drive the creation of a domestic biofuels industry, reduce US reliance on fossil fuels and generate jobs.
Pall will develop and demonstrate the science and separation technologies necessary to enable fungible biomass-based fuels to be integrated into the existing hydrocarbon fuels infrastructure. The company will be an engineering partner on each of six processes for biofuel production being evaluated under the program.
These processes include fermentation, catalytic conversion, catalytic fast pyrolysis, hydropyrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, and a low-cost, one-step syngas-to-distillates process.
The initiative will deliver at least one pilot-ready process, design reports, and life cycle analysis demonstrating economics and environmental benefit. The $46m project will be co-led by NREL and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Greg Heilbrunn, senior vice president of global marketing at Pall Energy, said: ”Our experience in advanced hot gas and liquid hydro separations for both conventional and alternative energy applications, as well as our global leadership in industrial membrane separations, will enable us to help ensure a marketable outcome of the consortium’s work.”
In addition to Pall, other consortium members include: Albemarle, Amyris Biotechnologies, Argonne National Laboratory, BP Products North America, Catchlight Energy, Colorado School of Mines, Iowa State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, RTI International, Tesoro companies, University of California- Davis, UOP LLC, Virent Energy Systems, and Washington State University.
