Mercurius says it “has the technology and processes that will, for the first time, make the production of cellulosic biofuels profitable while meeting the needs of the diesel and jet fuel markets and satisfying government requirements.”
Behind Mercurius is REACH technology — significantly faster than fermentation – taking 2-3 hours versus 2 or more days. While a few other methods (pyrolysis and gasification) are faster than REACH – they also must handle much higher volumes which require significantly higher capital investment/gallon. REACH is more robust than other processes with little sensitivity to impurities in feed stocks and with no use of delicate enzymes or bacteria.
The company has been best known for its development efforts in aviation biofuels, but more recently furthered its partnership with UC Davis to develop first-of-its-kind technology for production of furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA). While current approaches to the commercialization of FDCA use fructose as a feedstock, the Mercurius-UC Davis process operates from raw biomass.
Karl Seck gave this illuminating overview of the technology at ABLC Next in San Francisco.
