Biobased production of diesel and jetfuel

Research Project, 2013 – 2017

In this project there will be developed novel yeast cell factories for the production of hydrocarbons that can be used as jetfuel and fuel for heavy trucks, and directly enter the current infrastructures for these kind of fuels. Among the hydrocarbons that will be produced by yeast are long chain alkanes/alkenes, which are derived from fatty acids, and farnesene, which is an isoprenoid. These biofuels have significant advantages over bioethanol, the current most abundant biofuel, and current biodiesels that contain oxygen and hence are less suitable as jetfuel. Furthermore, through yeast based production of these fuels it will be possible to expand to the use of biomass as feedstock and hereby avoid competition with food production, which is particular a problem with current biodiesel production that is based on extraction of oils from edible plants. The project will also involve adaptation of yeast to grow on biomass hydrolysates and it will hereby lay the foundation for a Swedish based production of these advanced biofuels from biomass. The project will also involve engineering calculations of the cost competiveness of biobased production of diesel and jetfuel using different feedstocks as raw material, e.g. sugar cane, corn and biomass, and hereby allow for an evaluation of the viability of a Swedish based production of advanced biofuels.