Future improvements
Improvements in the PROCESS and COST are likely
• A paper on AFEX by Sendich et al. in 2008 can be used as an example for expected future changes
– Anticipated process improvements included less NH3, better recycling, less energy, and lower enzyme loading, drop total MESP: • 2005 NREL estimate of $1.41/galE * • …to $1.03 with SSF • …and $0.80 with CBP * Eggeman, T., & Elander, R. T. (2005). Process and economic analysis of pretreatment technologies. Bioresource technology, 96(18), 2019–25 |
Improvements to CBP Organism
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Potential for genetic engineering or selective breeding of organism
– Example: Brooks Bonds-Watts’ lecture on butanol pathway in E. coli • 500x improvement in base yield by understanding protein bottlenecks to production pathway and modifying gene expression – Example: Douglas Clark’s lecture on cellulase enzyme engineering • ~40x increase in high temperature throughput (65C) of cellulases by high throughput screening of gene library modified by mutation and recombination |