Industrial fermentation of renewable diesel fuels

In commodity chemicals, cost drives everything. A working class family of four drives up to the gas pumps and faces a choice of a renewable diesel or petroleum diesel. Renewable diesel costs $0.50 more per gallon. Which fuel do they pick? Petroleum diesel will be the winner every time, unless the renewable fuel can achieve cost and performance parity with petrol. Nascent producers of advanced biofuels, including Amyris, LS9, Neste and Solazyme, aim to deliver renewable diesel fuels that not only meet the cost challenge, but also exceed the storage, transport, engine performance and emissions properties of petroleum diesel.

► Advanced biofuel companies are developing and producing cost-competitive renewable diesel fuels that exceed the engine performance of petroleum diesel, while lowering emissions and GHG production.
► Renewable diesels, including alkane, olefin and farnesane based fuels, out-perform biodiesel fuels.
► To achieve commercial-scale volumes and costs, companies are engineering microbial strains to thrive in demanding full-scale production environments.