NSF Award
8861087
This work is to commercialize a competitive system using woody biomass as feed-stock for conversion to calcium acetate, an alternative road salt. This new organic road salt will prevent corrosion of bridge decks, underground cables, and rusting of cars and trucks. Calcium acetate from woody biomass will reduce costs, compared to petroleum and natural gas for making this material. The process is based on a "packed bed" fermenter to produce acetic acid from woody biomass, as well as liquid ion exchange to recover acetic acid from the fermenter broth prior to the final production step which occurs with passing the acetic acid over limestone. In Phase I: a) percent bioconversion and kinetics of woody biomass to acetic acid will be confirmed in small batch fermenters; b) partition coefficients for acetic acid recovery will be documented; and c) rates of conversion to calcium acetate will be determined. This investigation will show that woody biomass can be readily bioconverted to CMA. No organic waste, such as whey, or a primary crop such as corn, exists in such large quantities as does woody biomass, in order to produce the vast amounts of road salt used each year. Commercialization will be in the areas of the "frostbelt" states where economic vigor will be welcomed.
