Driving the next generation of biofuels to advance the bioeconomy and provide value to rural farmers and communities
Cost-effective
Terragia enables valorization of cellulosic materials at an 8x shorter payback period and 10x smaller scale than conventional approaches.
Better biology
Terragia starts with thermophilic microorganisms representative of nature’s best cellulosic biomass fermenters, and genetically engineers them to produce ethanol and other products. Thermophilic anaerobic bacteria are decisively better than commercial cellulases at deconstructing cellulosic biomass.
Consolidated bioprocessing
Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) using engineered thermophiles synergistically combines biologically-mediated events into one process step with no added enzymes. This is projected to lower costs and improve operational robustness.
No thermochemical pretreatment
Enabled by better biology, Terragia's microbes can access the carbohydrate fraction of some cellulose-containing biomass feedstocks without thermochemical pretreatment, reducing carbon intensity, CapEx and operational challenges.
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Lee, the research networks he leads, and Terragia are global leaders in research and development aimed at one-step biological conversion of cellulosic biomass without added enzymes or thermochemical pretreatment. NREL analysis shows that C-CBP exhibits very encouraging cost reduction potential relative to other cellulosic biofuel production concepts, while mitigating risks tied to reliance on exogenous enzymes.
Martin Keller, Director
National Renewable Energy Laboratory