Liquid fuels production from biomass. Final report

Isolation, characterization, and quantification of Clostridium kluyveri from the bovine rumen

“…Interestingly, caproic acid also has potential utility in promoting aerobic stability in silages when added at 0.12 g(kg silage DM) −1 prior to ensiling (Ohyama et al 1977). Perhaps more importantly in terms of commercial potential, caproic acid may also be useful as a feedstock for production of liquid alkane fuels using Kolbe electrochemistry (Levy et al 1983). …”

(Non-)Kolbe electrolysis in biomass valorization – a discussion of potential applications

“…Levy et al published in the report of the Department of Energy (DoE, USA) in 1980 that almost 50% of the necessary energy consumption of Kolbe electrolysis could be recovered by using H 2 and CO 2 in fuel cells. 107 The molten carbonate fuel cell approach also directly addresses the further usage of the co-produced CO 2 . Other possibilities involve the capture of CO 2 and further utilization as a C 1 building block.…”

End product yields from the extraruminal fermentation of various polysaccharide, protein and nucleic acid components of biofuels feedstocks

“…These VFA may be converted to alkanes, alkenes, H 2 and CO 2 via Kolbe or Hofer-Moest electrolysis ( Fig. 1; see Levy et al, 1983;Lund, 2001;Torii and Tanaka, 2001). The primarily gaseous alkanes can be further refined to liquid fuels by conventional petrochemical refining technologies (Speight, 2006), and alkenes can be oligomerized using the Shell Higher Olefin process (Weissermel and Arpe, 1997).…”

“…In principle, biomass fermentations to VFA can be accomplished by inhibiting the methanogenic step of anaerobic digestion (Levy et al, 1983;Holtzapple et al, 1999), which in turns results in VFA accumulation via thermodynamic constraints on VFA oxidation and on proton reduction to H 2 . However, fermentation of biomass to VFA is also accomplished naturally in the rumen of ruminant animals, and this process is among the most efficient of all natural cellulosic bioprocessing systems (Weimer et al, 2009).…”