Sustainable technology company Anellotech announced that its pioneering Bio-TCat process, which produces bio-based aromatics from pine wood, has a CO₂ emission reduction potential of 70% or more when compared to petroleum-derived equivalents. Jacobs’ analysis confirms that Bio-TCat is ideal for chemical producers and brand owners looking to meet sustainability goals for producing renewable polymers for consumer products or biofuels blended into transportation fuels.

Jacobs Engineering Group, a globally respected engineering firm, conducted an in-depth review of Anellotech’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) Lifecycle Analysis (LCA), using its own industry-accepted refinery and petrochemical models. Jacobs verified that renewably-sourced Bio-TCat products enable significant GHG reductions when compared to identical chemicals currently made from crude oil.
 
“Engaging Jacobs’ expertise to review our process energy and material balance helped us improve the accuracy of our LCA model tremendously, and make meaningful comparisons with real-world carbon footprints. This makes us even more confident that Bio-TCat technology will deliver on its sustainability promises and provide an economical route to a range of renewable chemical and fuel applications products that can replace those made from crude oil,” said Anellotech President and CEO David Sudolsky.

The LCA compared Bio-TCat aromatics, produced using sustainably-sourced loblolly pine feedstock from the southern United States, to petro-aromatics produced in the US Gulf Coast from three crude oils which represented a range of carbon intensities. Jacobs employed their proprietary, detailed models for oil production, transportation and refining to estimate the carbon intensity of producing high-purity paraxylene and benzene products.

The results found that CO₂ emissions for producing paraxylene and benzene from pulpwood using Anellotech’s process are estimated to be 70-80% lower than emissions for identical petro-based chemicals made from crude oils. If Bio-TCat is configured to make renewable gasoline and distillate fuel blendstocks, the reduction potential exceeds 90% as fuels are burned to make energy. In the coming months, Anellotech will be revisiting its process design and performing additional energy integration and optimization work to identify further ways to lower CO₂ emissions.