Aside from the fermentation route, ethanol can be produced from biomass via the thermochemical route. This usually involves the thermal treatment of the biomass at high temperatures (in an oxygen-controlled environment) to produce ‘synthesis gas”, which is mainly a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The synthesis gas is then processed into ethanol via catalytic reaction. The problem in the conventional catalytic reaction to ethanol was the tendency to form undesirable side products other than ethanol, such as methane and aldehydes. Scientists from the Ames Laboratory of the United States Department of Energy tried to improve the process by utilizing a metal catalyst “dispersed widely within the structure of mesoporous nanospheres, tiny sponge-like balls with thousands of channels running through them“. The scientific team led by Ames Lab chemist and Chemical and Biological Science Program Director Victor Lin, found that “the carbon monoxide molecules that  yielded ethanol could be “activated” in the presence of the catalyst with the unique structural feature“..