The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted Atlantic Biomass $184,000 for a project titled "Low-Cost Production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) from Perennial Feedstocks using Simultaneous Ball Milling and Enzyme Hydrolysis." This project will be carried out in collaboration with Atlantic Biomass's STTR Institutional Partner, The Ohio State University Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering in Wooster, Ohio. Dr. Fred Michel of OSU, who has been working with Atlantic Biomass since their earlier Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEII) Seed Grant program, will continue to support the development of this system. Dr. Kim Daehwan from Hood College’s Biology Department in Frederick, Maryland, will conduct biomass structural analysis for the project. Additionally, the Association of Warm Season Grass Producers will supply switchgrass and miscanthus samples from their commercial crops for testing and analysis.

Bob Kozak, President and Founder of Atlantic Biomass, highlighted that purpose-grown herbaceous energy crops could contribute 535 million dry tons of new biomass to the U.S. bioeconomy, according to the latest DOE Billion Ton Study. However, as noted in the report, these perennial grass energy crops require breakthroughs in SAF-based processing to become commercially viable.

Kozak stated, "We believe that the innovations developed by our team with this significant STTR grant will advance our simultaneous ball milling/enzyme hydrolysis process and help us meet the DOE's goals for perennial grass."

This grant was awarded by the U.S. DOE under the Alternative Uses of Commercial Equipment (ACE) topic. Rather than creating new equipment from the ground up, the ACE initiative aims to leverage the expertise of innovative small companies to adapt and enhance existing equipment, thereby improving the processing of biomass and waste feedstocks.

Atlantic Biomass's enhanced simultaneous ball milling/enzymatic hydrolysis process will reduce the cost of producing fermentable sugars from biomass by eliminating the need for pretreatment steps required by existing technologies. These sugars will be fermented into ethanol using Atlantic Biomass’s integrated fermentation and distillation system, which was developed with funding from the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute Seed Grant. The process will employ bacteria that convert glucose and other biomass sugars, increasing ethanol production by approximately 20% compared to traditional glucose-based systems. The resulting ethanol will then serve as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel or other chemical products.

Kozak added, "The STTR-funded advancements in the simultaneous ball milling/enzyme hydrolysis process will streamline the current 8-step biomass-to-fuel procedure into just 4 steps. This reduction will significantly cut operational and energy costs, making commercial production more feasible."

This project is part of the broader DOE Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The DOE has awarded $52 million to 229 projects across 39 states to support advancements in clean energy research and development (R&D) and future demonstration projects.

The Atlantic Biomass award was part of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) initiative, which selected 13 small businesses across 10 states to advance bioenergy R&D. Among these 13 BETO awards, six are first-time recipients, including Atlantic Biomass, which is also one of four projects based in Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) zones.

BETO focuses on the research, development, and deployment of "drop-in" biofuels derived from renewable biomass and waste resources. These biofuels are designed to be compatible with existing fueling infrastructure and to support modes of transportation that are challenging to electrify, such as aviation, maritime, rail, and medium-to-heavy duty off-road vehicles. This grant to Atlantic Biomass supports research aimed at achieving these goals.