MSU Bioeconomy tenant to ship first 1,500 lbs. of biomass-based rocket fuel

Development of a leading-edge rocket fuel based on carbohydrates is about to take off with the launch of the first 1,500 pounds of product from a West Michigan laboratory.

According to excerpts from the story:

Aerospace is propelling Afid Therapeutics Inc., the lone company using the Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute in Holland. Afid Therapeutics, founded in 2004 by MSU Professor Rawle Hollingsworth, recently landed three federal orders for “a new high purity reactant.”

Some 1,500 pounds of the substance is expected to ship shortly, according to an Afid press release. The carbohydrate-based substance is used in propulsion, Hollingsworth said, and like Afid’s pharmaceutical products now in the marketplace, is based on plant material. He said it is not explosive, but because of national security issues, he said he could reveal little more. “I can’t say a lot about it because it’s a new reactant that is used in launch systems, and our clients, our customers, want us to be as vague about it as possible,” said Hollingworth, who teaches graduate chemistry classes at MSU and holds appointments in a variety of disciplines there.

Read the complete story here.