TECHNOLOGY
FULLY INTEGRATED MARKET DEMONSTRATION UNIT
BRYAN, TEXAS
Experience
>47,000 hours fermentation operation various feedstocks
Process Stability
1 year of continuous fermentation in final design configuration
Scale-Up
Successful 45,000x scale-up
Quality
Material tested by leading HEFA producers & licensors, with overwhelmingly positive results -- ASTM work initiated
FUELING THE FUTURE THROUGH THE BVK PROCESS
The BVK Process represents a step-change for the production of SAF. The process unlocks more feedstocks and uses less energy to deliver superior carbon intensity.
The core of The BVK Process is Directed Mixed-Culture Fermentation, followed by Low-Energy Acid Recovery (LEAR) to produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs). The VFAs are converted using commercially-established steps to low-carbon intensity SAF.
Directed Mixed-Culture Fermentation
Directed Mixed-Culture Fermentation unlocks a wide range of biomass for fuel production. The naturally occurring, self-regulating ecosystem of microorganisms adapts to the input biomass to produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs), a reactive intermediate on the path to SAF. BioVeritas has produced VFAs from over 35 feedstocks – from sugarcane bagasse to food waste to corn starch. Through our proprietary process we direct the microbial physiology and ecology to create a mixture of VFAs in a controlled and tunable ratio, optimized for the target product.
Low-Energy Acid Recovery
Low-Energy Acid Recovery (LEAR) retrieves the targeted volatile fatty acids (VFAs) at high purity and with low energy demand and, resultingly, low carbon intensity. LEAR is our proprietary recovery and water-recycling process that recovers the dilute VFAs from the fermentation broth; it does so with greater energy efficiency than distillation and evaporation, two steps that typically drive high energy demand in similar technology pathways. LEAR selectively recovers the higher carbon number acids (C5-C8) and recycles the shorter-chain acids to fermentation for elongation.
Ketonization
Ketonization creates advantaged, drop-in feedstocks, or bio-intermediates, for the established HEFA process. BioVeritas is building upon the proven ketonization catalytic conversion to dimerize two VFAs into a jet-range ketone of carbon chain lengths C9-C15 – a KEYtone™.
HEFA Conversion
The HEFA Process – hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids – is an established, commercial biofuel production process that effectively converts ketones and other oxygenates into fuel. Through the HEFA process, the KEYtones™ are converted into normal and iso-paraffins (SAF) via two catalytic conversions – hydrodeoxygenation followed by isomerization. Unlike traditional HEFA SAF production, hydrocracking is not required as the KEYtones™ are already jet-range in length. After conversion, the neat SAF is ready for blending and use.
Note: The intermediate VFAs are highly reactive molecules and building blocks for products in a wide range of applications such as specialty and industrial chemicals, lubricants, supplements, and food and feed ingredients.
In the longer term, this bio-platform can serve these additional markets.
