Metabolix Receives Grant to Develop Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum Feedstocks

Metabolix, a major developer of green and sustainable alternative solutions for chemicals, energy and plastics, has received $6 million worth of funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The sponsorship comes under the $42 million R&D project fund of Obama government to encourage the development of renewable biofuels and value enriched bio-related products. The grant will be used by Metabolix to continue its investigation into engineered switchgrass, which serves as an ideal substitute to petroleum feedstocks.

For a number of years, Metabolix has been using switchgrass to improve its biomass biorefinery platform. The new funding agreement will enable the company to further improve polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) expression in switchgrass, enabling co-development of dense biomass and chemicals. The fueling and shipping characteristics of dense biomass will closely resemble coal. In addition, the company will further build and upgrade its selective thermolysis process. The selective thermolysis method uses normal temperature to directly retrieve a new platform chemical, crotonic acid, from PHA comprising switchgrass. The chemical can be quickly altered to several chemical intermediates such as butanol and propylene via easy chemical alteration stages.

Metabolix’ Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of R&D, Oliver Peoples stated that the DOE grant will enable them to develop a new sustainable bioenergy solution, which can considerably bring down the reliance on foreign oil as well improve America’s economic growth.

Citations

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

  • APA

    Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.. (2019, February 09). Metabolix Receives Grant to Develop Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum Feedstocks. AZoM. Retrieved on October 12, 2024 from https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=29311.

  • MLA

    Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.. "Metabolix Receives Grant to Develop Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum Feedstocks". AZoM. 12 October 2024. <https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=29311>.

  • Chicago

    Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.. "Metabolix Receives Grant to Develop Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum Feedstocks". AZoM. https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=29311. (accessed October 12, 2024).

  • Harvard

    Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.. 2019. Metabolix Receives Grant to Develop Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum Feedstocks. AZoM, viewed 12 October 2024, https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=29311.

Tell Us What You Think

Do you have a review, update or anything you would like to add to this news story?

Leave your feedback
Your comment type
Submit

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.