Research Focus
Dr. Blake Simmons serves as the Chief Scientific and Technology Officer and Vice President of the Deconstruction Division at the US Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in Emeryville. After earning his BS in chemical engineering from the University of Washington, Dr. Simmons continued his studies at Tulane University and received his doctorate in the same field. Dr. Simmons worked as part of the Senior Management team at Sandia National Laboratories for 15 years, most recently serving as the Senior Manager of Advanced Biomanufacturing as well as the Biomass Program Manager. He joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in February of 2016 as the Division Director of Biological Systems and Engineering. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University California-Berkeley and the University of Queensland in Australia. His expertise includes advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals, biomanufacturing, ionic liquids, abiotic-biotic interfaces, biomass pretreatment, enzyme engineering, biofuel cells, templated nanomaterials, microfluidics, desalination, and biomineralization.
Read more about Blake Simmons’ work on Research Gate.
Projects
- Development and optimization of new biomass pretreatment techniques based on ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents that are affordable and scalable.
- Targeted discovery of new enzymes and metabolic pathways associated with lignocellulose conversion isolated from microbial communities.
- Discovery, evolution and optimization of lignocellulolytic enzymes and enzyme complexes for enhanced depolymerization and fractionation of the treated biomass into high yields of bioavailable intermediates.
- Development of recombinant fungal protein expression systems to facilitate enzyme cocktail optimization and production of advanced biofuels and bioproducts.
- Technoeconomic and life-cycle analyses of biorefineries.
Featured Media
- Blue Pigment from Engineered Fungi Could Help Turn the Textile Industry Green
- Bright skies for plant-based jet fuels
- All Aboard the Jungle Express!
- Could This Enzyme Help Turn Biofuel Waste into Something Useful?
- TedX Talk: A World Without Limits Through Biomanufacturing of Carbon
- Blake Simmons discusses biomass deconstruction methods
- TedX-TU: Blake Simmons presents on advanced biofuels
- Scientists Harness CO2 to Consolidate Biofuel Production Process
- Why we have a Joint BioEnergy Institute: the Story of Ionic Liquids
- Driving the Future: Advanced Biofuels at JBEI, presentation from 2015 JGI Annual Meeting
- JBEI Featured in Chemical & Engineering News
- Ionic Liquids Create More Sustainable Processes
- Blake Simmons featured in Biofuels Digest
- Bionic Liquids
- MaxBin offers automated sorting through metagenomes
- One Pot to Prep Biomass for Biofuels
Featured Publications
- “One-pot bio-derived ionic liquid conversion followed by hydrogenolysis reaction for biomass valorization: a promising approach affecting the morphology and quality of lignin of switchgrass and poplar“, Bioresource Technology (2019)
- “Sustainable bioproduction of the blue pigment indigoidine: Expanding the range of heterologous products in R. toruloides to include non-ribosomal peptides“, Green Chemistry (2019)
- “Engineering Corynebacterium glutamicum to produce the biogasoline isopentenol from plant biomass hydrolysates“, Biotechnology for Biofuels (2019)
- “A new approach to Cas9-based genome editing in Aspergillus niger that is precise, efficient and selectable“, PLoS ONE (2019)
- “Techno-economic analysis and life-cycle greenhouse gas mitigation cost of five routes to bio-jet fuel blendstocks“, Energy and Environmental Science (2019)
- “Structural design of ionic liquids for optimizing aromatic dissolution“, ChemSusChem (2019)
- “Linking secondary metabolites to gene clusters through genome sequencing of six diverse Aspergillus species”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)
- “Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas- and Water-Intensity of Cellulosic Biofuel Production Using Cholinium Lysinate Ionic Liquid Pretreatment”, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2017)
- “A Survey of Lignin-Structure Changes and Depolymerization during Ionic Liquid Pretreatment”, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2017)
- “A Bacterial Pioneer Produces Cellulase Complexes that Persist through Community Succession”, Nature Microbiology (2017)
- “CO2 enabled process integration for the production of cellulosic ethanol using bionic liquids”, Energy Environ. Sci. (2016)
- “Transforming biomass conversion with ionic liquids: process intensification and the development of a high-gravity, one-pot process for the production of cellulosic ethanol”, Energy Environ. Sci. (2016)
- “Dynamics Changes of Substrate Reactivity and Enzyme Adsorption on Partially Hydrolyzed Cellulose”, Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2016)
- “Activation of Lignocellulosic Biomass for Higher Sugar Yields using Aqueous Ionic Liquid at Low Severity Process Conditions”, Biotechnology for Biofuels (2016)
- “Impact of engineered lignin composition on biomass recalcitrance and ionic liquid pretreatment efficiency”, Green Chemistry (2016)
- “Theoretical Insights into the Role of Water in the Dissolution of Cellulose Using IL/Water Mixed Solvent Systems”, J. Phys. Chem B (2016)
- “Impact of engineered lignin composition on biomass recalcitrance and ionic liquid pretreatment efficiency”, Green Chemistry (2016)
- “The DOE Bioenergy Research Centers: History, Operations, and Scientific Output”, Bioenergy Research (2015)
- “Design of low-cost ionic liquids for lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment”, Green Chemistry (2015)
- “Assay for lignin breakdown based on lignin films: insights into the Fenton reaction with insoluble lignin”, Green Chemistry (2015)
- “Blending municipal solid waste with corn stover for sugar production using ionic liquid process”, Bioresource Technology (2015)
- “Improved activity of a Thermophilic cellulase, Cel5A, from Thermotoga maritima on ionic liquid pretreated switchgrass”, PLoS ONE (2015)
- “Theoretical Insights into the Role of Water in the Dissolution of Cellulose Using IL?/Water Mixed Solvent Systems”, J Phys Chem B (2015)
- “Comparison of different pretreatments for the production of bioethanol and biomethane from corn stover and switchgrass”, Bioresource Technology (2015)
- “Efficient biomass pretreatment using ionic liquids derived from lignin and hemicellulose”, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2014)
- “An auto-inducible mechanism for ionic liquid resistance in microbial biofuel production” Nature Communications (2014)
- “A comparative study of ethanol production using dilute acid, ionic liquid and AFEX™ pretreated corn stover”, Biotechnology for Biofuels (2014)
- “Theory, practice and prospects of X-ray and neutron scattering for lignocellulosic biomass characterization: towards understanding biomass pretreatment”, Energy Environ. Sci. (2014)
- “Lignin fate and characterization during ionic liquid biomass pretreatment for renewable chemicals and fuels production”, Green Chem. (2014)