Project Bluestem 

Members: Bluestem Biosciences and National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC)

Project dates: 2023-2023

Bluestem Biosciences and the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) worked to boost the bioeconomy of the Midwest by identifying promising commercial opportunities for anaerobic fermentation technology. Building on the acceptance of the bioethanol industry, Project Bluestem leveraged existing biocampus infrastructure and agricultural resources to draw attention to the potential of using corn as a feedstock for fermentation. 

Through this project, researchers built BlueSTEAM, an open-source code base that simplifies the techno-economic analysis for anaerobic biomanufacturing processes. The BlueSTEAM tool was developed to create, validate, and integrate data, enabling researchers and commercial entities to assess production processes efficiently at a fraction of the cost of current Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) models. The advancement of biomanufacturing processes has often failed due to a lack of economic viability. BlueSTEAM addresses this by allowing for early and basic TEA prior to large-scale investments in a biomanufacturing process. 

With BlueSTEAM, the Project Bluestem team simplified and automated the creation of TEA models in order to provide industry and academia with a more approachable way to assess economic viability early on in a project. With just a few simple inputs, BlueSTEAM will generate a superstructure and identify the optimal downstream separation process using machine learning guided by network properties and thermodynamic heuristics. This modular approach informs the resulting biorefinery's design, simulation, and TEA. An industry report was prepared at the conclusion of the project, guiding member engagement with key stakeholders of the Midwest bioeconomy. 

Members can find instructions for running BlueSTEAM, as well as the industry report, in the Member Portal.  

Funding source: U.S. Department of Defense