Project Aims to Develop New Catalysts for Lower Biofuel Production

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), together with Johnson Matthey, a global specialty chemical company, will attempt to produce cheaper drop-in gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from non-food biomass feedstocks. This five-year, $7 million collaborative project will be conducted under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between NREL and Johnson Matthey.

The goal is to improve vapor phase upgrading during the biomass pyrolysis process in order to lower costs and speed production of lignocellulose-based fuels. The non-food derived feedstocks used to produce the biofuels will vary from fast-growing poplar or pine trees to switch grass, forest and agriculture residue and municipal solid waste. It will not include anything that is actually food for humans.The vapor produced from the pyrolysis of biomass can be used to make transportation fuel, if industry can efficiently convert it into the hydrocarbons similar to petroleum-based fuels used in modern engines.

Pyrolysis involves thermally decomposing organic materials using heat and pressure in the absence of oxygen. Although the pyrolysis vapors contain carbon that can be condensed into an oil, impurities in that condensed oil make it not suitable to be used in an engine or even readily converted into a fuel. Thus, CRADA will develop catalytic materials that can convert these vapors into liquid fuels that can be used in cars, trucks, train engines, and jets.

View NREL's news release at http://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2012/2043.html.