New Chemical Method Simplifies Biomass Conversion into Fuels

A new cost-efficient chemical process for fuel conversion from biomass to liquid hydrocarbons has been designed by a team of researchers led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA as reported in the journal Catalysis Science & Technology.

The researchers employed a method that exposed the chemical ring of furans, molecules that are generated from the breakdown of cellulose in biomass, so that they could be easily altered chemically. Opening these rings into linear chains is a critical step in fuel conversion because these linear molecules subsequently can be converted into alkanes, the hydrocarbons used in gasoline and diesel fuels. The said method was performed under relatively mild temperature of 80 degrees Celsius using hydrochloric acid as a catalyst. Current conversion technologies are prohibitively expensive because these require extreme conditions of high temperature and high pressure.

The researchers tested the process on several biomass-derived molecules and analyzed the selectivity and mechanism of reaction. This information is believed to be a key to designing better catalysts and processes for biomass conversion.