Sponsored Research
Inventure’s chemical engineers are frequently engaged to test, develop and commercialize customized solutions to help clients generate more value from waste streams and other industrial byproducts. We’ve completed scores of such projects for clients large and small. These include:
- Catalyst development
- Continuous chromatography
- Reactive distillations
- Rare earth element recovery
- Complex laboratory testing
- Bio-based herbicide formulations
- Coconut fatty acid methyl ester reaction/purification via reactive distillation
- Rare earth element digestion and recovery via chromatographic methods
- Lignocellulose to cellulose/high grade clothing fiber (rayon grade, dissolving pulp, specialty cellulose)
- Production of purified C5 monosaccharides from lignocellulose processing
- Isolation of nutraceuticals from distillers’ corn oil
- Epichlorohydrin plant optimization through detailed reactor modeling and bench scale synthesis
- Alkyl ketene dimer bench to pilot to commercial optimization
- Sebacic acid commercial process improvements
- Isolation and purification of hemicellulose streams from lignocellulosic digestion
- Extraction of aluminum and iron from coal combustion waste (fly ash, etc)
- Zinc recovery technology from bag-house dust waste from steel mills
- Supplanting of acidic/waste-intensive reagents with bio-based acids in fermentation applications
- Guar removal from fracking produced water
- In-situ production of sugar alcohols and derivatives from supercritical fluid digestion of lignocellulosics
- Tocopherol (Vitamin E) concentration via supercritical alcoholysis of fatty acid distillates
- Sterol (beta-sitosterol, campesterol, etc) valorization and purification
- Biodiesel (methyl and ethyl ester) production via supercritical alcoholysis of various edible oils (soy, canola, rapeseed) and refining byproducts (acid oil, UCO, tallow, poultry fat)
- Simultaneous biodiesel, amino acid and monosaccharide production via mixed supercritical fluid digestion of algae and cyanobacteria
- Dealkylation and transalkylation of alkylphenols to produce monophenolics and alkylbenzenes
- Valorization of soapstock into distilled fatty acids suitable for HVO/renewable diesel and oleochemical markets
- Engineering and technology provider services for the production and isolation of hydroxyacetone
- Conversion of fatty alkyl esters to fatty acids via reactive distillation
- Establishment of short path distillation conditions for de-pitching of crude CBD
- Fractional distillation of cannabis-based terpenes
- Isolation of ferulic acid from rice bran soapstock
- Soy hull valorization
- Rice bran meal optimization and protein purification
- Purification/remediation of oleochemical products and intermediates
- Engineering and R&D consultation for toll manufacturing of pharmaceutical grade oleochemical derivatives
- Industrial scale optimization of alkyl ester-based technology utilizing heterogenous acid catalysts
- Feedstock screening and retrofitting of legacy biodiesel producers (base catalyzed, acid/base catalyzed) to increase capability for processing of high fatty acid streams
- Synthesis and purification of novel oleochemical reference standards
- Detailed experience with heterogenous azeotrope optimization
- Production of DHA/EPA ethyl esters and other specialty esters via supercritical alcoholysis
Recent examples of Inventure’s Sponsored Research work include:
Treating Fracking Wastewater – Inventure has been working with a major water recycler to remove toxic elements from water used in hydraulic fracturing so it can be re-used on-site instead of being transported to storage facilities, at a great cost.
Purifying Coal Power Plant Residue – Inventure is working with a large utility company to process toxic fly ash (from coal-fired power plants) to reduce waste and recover valuable metals.
Troubleshooting Chemical Processes at processing plants to bring closed plants back on-line.