seanhunt1

5 ms·

1. 1.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   more than a month. Best to think of it in terms of H2O2 turnovers per enzyme. Imagine if we made a new enzyme that had 10x faster turnovers but a 5x lower lifetime. Assuming we could still keep up with its oxygen demands, that is a better e
2. 2.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   Thanks so much for this advice, very helpful!
3. 3.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   Well our current facility takes up ca 2000 square feet and has sufficient capacity for our new consumer product launch, it really depends on what you want to do with the peroxide. If you want to compete on price against the current process
4. 4.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   haha yes, we do hear recurring revenue here. Enzymes are indeed fragile relative to metals and have limited lifetimes. However, even metals like palladium leach, sinter, get poisoned, etc. In the current process, many facilities have to con
5. 5.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   At scale, our technique is economically viable on its own (but subsidies would always be nice I suppose). Currently though, we are on a pilot scale so we cannot yet compete on volume, hence our gtm strategy of differentiated hydrogen peroxi
6. 6.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   No worries, I will do my best! Yes, peroxide from any source can cause explosions, but usually only at high concentrations in water. At low concentrations (below 8%) metal contaminants, especially precious metals like platinum and palladi
7. 7.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   thanks so much!
8. 8.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   Yes! Enzymatic chemical production supplanting traditional fermentation is why Solugen exists. Historically, enzymatic production is used in only 3% of all chemical production processes. However, with CRISPR/Cas9 and the second wave of
9. 9.▲
   by seanhunt1 9y ago

   agreed! We are working on this one, thanks!
10. 10.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    thanks, I think we need to do a better job at differentiating between hydrogen peroxide the molecule vs. the hydrogen peroxide production process. We'll update this section today so that it hopefully is more clear. Here is what I am th
11. 11.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    yep, sugars have more internal energy than peroxide (you can just add up all the bond enthalpies for a quick estimate). Peroxide is used in fuels because 1.) it is much easier to activate than sugars because it is thermodynamically metastab
12. 12.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    these are some great questions! kW/kg is really the magic number but very difficult to extract precisely (we do have estimates though from energy balance calculations). A more qualitative way to look at energy cost comparisons is to lo
13. 13.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    Thanks! We are finding that sub-ambient temperatures are working the best (ca. 10-20 celsius). For improving reaction rates, elevating pressure is much less energy intensive than elevating temperatures, and is extremely useful for improving
14. 14.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    haha we talked to some rocket companies, and it isn't an area we plan to enter soon, but technically yes we could! Even with the current anthraquinone process, hydrogen peroxide is still a much "greener" monopropellant than h
15. 15.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    Thanks, this is Solugen's biggest goal!
16. 16.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    Our process doesn't produce water. The H2 comes from starch and the O2 is taken from the air. Catalysts are self-regenerating, although enzymes do naturally degrade over time.
17. 17.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    Yep, this is correct! It largely depends on the country's electricity costs vs. access to natural gas. In some instances, rather than methane steam reforming, dry methane reforming is also used. Currently, almost all large-scale peroxi
18. 18.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    Currently, the H2 comes from waterplitting that occurs in the photosystem II of plant cells. We are now working on a system where the H2 comes from bulk water electrolysis, which is now more efficient than plant cells
19. 19.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    Great question! The reaction is actually thermodynamically downhill and spontaneous (delta G less than zero). The current manufacturing processes use palladium catalysts that do have an activation barrier that requires heat. Enzymes are muc
20. 20.▲
    by seanhunt1 9y ago

    Hey! We're really excited too. The biggest challenge with reactor design is getting excellent oxygen mass transfer (called the Kla "Kay el aye"). Typical fermentation reactors see a background dissolved oxygen concentration o