The purpose of this report is to benchmark the latest experimental developments across a number of potential bioconversion pathways as quantified by modeled minimum fuel selling prices (MFSPs), as a measure of current status relative to those final targets. For this state of technology, TEA models were run for two separate biological conversion pathways to fuels, based on available data for integrated biomass deconstruction and hydrolysate processing
namely carboxylic acids (primarily butyric acid) and diols (2,3-butanediol [BDO]), reflecting NREL?s recently-published 2018 biochemical design report focused on those two pathways. The models were run across three scenarios for lignin utilization, namely combustion, conversion to coproducts based on ?base case? performance with biomass hydrolysate, and conversion to coproducts based on ?high? performance demonstrated with model lignin monomer components.