All approaches to bioproduct separations will influence process economics and the environmental impact of biomass conversion processes. The Crosscutting Analysis team works with the technology teams to:

• Illuminate the separations challenges that most influence the cost of producing fuels in priority pathways
  and
• Quantify the contribution to the cost per gasoline gallon equivalent posed by these challenges.

This effort catalogues separations costs in existing pathways subject to research and development at national laboratories, which serve benchmarks against which projects in the consortium will compete. In addition, the team will help technology teams identify the most promising technologies of those in their portfolios to pursue and areas that would most benefit process economics, along with assisting in the estimation of potential cost reductions for selected proposed projects. Finally, the influence of separation technology on life-cycle energy consumption, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions will also be evaluated.