Turn cooking oil into renewable fuels
BY Rhonda Hillbery
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is not an especially new concept - recycling cooking oil into biofuel. It's always nice to see it continue and grow. We first started reporting about the idea in Progressive Charlestown in 2011. We featured then 13-year old Miranda Lin of Westerly whose student-lead effort won recognition from the United Nations Environmental program. - Will Collette
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| Zhiyao (Yao) Lu leads a USC startup that has developed a technology designed to turn vegetable oil into renewable fuels and biodegradable plastic. (Photo/Rhonda Hillberry) |
Greenhouse gases and plastic waste
are the targets of a USC chemistry startup.
Postdoctoral scholar and Catapower
Inc. director Zhiyao (Yao) Lu describes the company’s technology as a molecular
robot that turns vegetable oil into renewable fuels and biodegradable plastic.
“We started as a team of scientists tackling two of the world’s most prominent environmental challenges — the relentless rise of greenhouse gases and the conglomeration of plastic waste in the oceans,” Lu said, referring to well-documented plastic patches the size of Australia now floating in the Pacific Ocean.
Approaching the problem as a chemist, he wanted to tackle both problems at once.
Catapower’s momentum was underscored
in March when Lu’s presentation earned the top 2018 USC Wrigley Sustainability
Prize of $7,000. The annual competition promotes business concepts that help
the environment. In weeks leading up to the competition, students drafted
business plans and honed their pitches while assigned mentors help them turn
their ideas into action.
Lu was one of seven finalists to
present his research to a panel of leading technology and science experts at
the Ronald Tutor Campus Center. “I was very nervous,” he said.
On the heels of that success,
Catapower was selected for the National Science
Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program to learn how to
run a startup, including customer acquisition, incorporation, licensing and
fundraising.
USC is home to the Southern California I-Corps hub, one of eight centers nationally, jointly administered by the California Institute of Technology and UCLA. The program aims to foster nationwide innovation by encouraging the translation of ideas and research beyond the laboratory for social and economic impact.
USC is home to the Southern California I-Corps hub, one of eight centers nationally, jointly administered by the California Institute of Technology and UCLA. The program aims to foster nationwide innovation by encouraging the translation of ideas and research beyond the laboratory for social and economic impact.
Renewable fuels: Moving from the lab
to something larger
As part of the intensive I-Corps
program, Lu hit the road in August with his business partner and adviser,
Associate Professor Travis Williams, to talk with potential customers, partners
and investors.
Funding would enable Catapower to grow from lab and test-tube stage to something much larger. The founders said the company is in negotiations for large contracts to deploy its technology at refinery scale in 2019.
Funding would enable Catapower to grow from lab and test-tube stage to something much larger. The founders said the company is in negotiations for large contracts to deploy its technology at refinery scale in 2019.
Although it might seem like things
are happening quickly, Lu pointed out that he and other USC chemistry students
have been working diligently for more than five years to get this far.
“After developing and testing many
generations of different catalysts, we finally arrived at this one — a
molecular machine,” said Lu, formally the company’s chief technology officer.
“It works millions of times with high precision, very selectively converting
the glycerol waste into lactate, while producing biodiesel.”
Williams, who encouraged Lu to
tackle the commercialization challenge on top of his postdoctoral
responsibilities, serves as academic adviser, co-founder and technical adviser
for the company.
Several Williams students, including Ivan Demianets, Valeriy Cherepakhin and Talya Kapenstein, have also participated.
Several Williams students, including Ivan Demianets, Valeriy Cherepakhin and Talya Kapenstein, have also participated.
Turning cooking oil into fuel
Used cooking oil from commercial and
household fryers is a form of biomass that Catapower intends
to upgrade into biodiesel and lactic acid. The first product is
the renewable fuel known as biodiesel.
It’s known as an environmentally friendly, low-carbon fuel, but its widespread use in heavy equipment, airplanes, trucks and power generators has been stymied by its high cost of production.
The new technology overcomes the cost obstacle affordably and sustainably, Lu said. And any type of vegetable oil can be used for the upgrading process. “So now we have a process that makes two valuable products and no waste.”
It’s known as an environmentally friendly, low-carbon fuel, but its widespread use in heavy equipment, airplanes, trucks and power generators has been stymied by its high cost of production.
The new technology overcomes the cost obstacle affordably and sustainably, Lu said. And any type of vegetable oil can be used for the upgrading process. “So now we have a process that makes two valuable products and no waste.”
The second product line harnesses
the polymer form of lactic acid, a biodegradable plastic widely used in
disposables and biodegradable medical devices. The salts of lactic acid are
used as environmentally benign antimicrobials in a range of products from food
to cosmetics and are valuable commodity chemicals.
The Williams lab is working with
the USC Wrigley Institute for
Environmental Studies, which operates on Catalina Island and the
University Park Campus, to create a demonstration project that provides
practical and educational benefits.
“From our perspective, being able to
refine biodiesel here on an island saves us the trouble of figuring how to get
rid of used cooking oil and also reduces the amount of diesel fuel we need to
bring onto the island,” said John Heidelberg, an associate professor of
biological sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
and associate director of the Wrigley Institute.
Lu, who grew up in northwestern
China, studied pharmaceutical sciences in college before coming to USC to earn
his PhD in chemistry.
“I’ve always wanted to make
contributions to society by improving people’s quality of life and thought I’d
work in developing new medications that could help hundreds of thousands of
people.” As time passed, he saw the challenge in a different light.
“I thought, why are so people
getting sick?” he said. “We are polluting the environment, which is harming
people’s health. I realized there is a much bigger problem, the environmental
deterioration that threatens the sustainable future of our society.”