Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** domestic production of biobased…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** domestic production of biobased chemical intermediatesthis project promotes the use of non-food biobased polyols by developing improved technologies for hemicelluloses extraction, hemicelluloses conversion to tetrahydrofuran (THF), and polymerization of THF to polytetramethylene ether glycol (ptmeg.) these technologies will enable domestic, biobased ptmeg that is cost competitive with incumbent fossil fuel derived ptmeg. Farmers will benefit from increased revenue derived from lignocellulosic waste, consumers will benefit from lower carbon intensity products without sacrifice in price or performance.almond shells from a grower coop will be used to develop and demonstrate laboratory scale processes to produce value added chemical intermediates and to return the processed shells as animal feed with improved digestibility. Extraction of hemicellulose will be designed for operation at the almond shelling facility to limit the transportation of raw biomass. The technical results will be communicated through outreach to the growers and to the markets for the biobased intermediates. A measure of project success will be an off take agreement with the grower coop and supply agreements with industrial users and manufacturers of THF and ptmeg.during the 20TH century, biobased ptmeg was manufactured in the US from corn cobs and OAT hulls. Today, lower cost fossil fuel based ptmeg has replaced biobased ptmeg and the old technology for biobased ptmeg has moved offshore. The technical opportunity exists to make biobased ptmeg cost competitive by improving the production processes. Remaking, and reshoring this value chain will allow the low carbon intensity of biobased ptmeg to disrupt the $4B global ptmeg market, and to reduce CO2 emissions by millions of tons/year.