UK Project to Produce Ethanol from Waste Using Solar Energy

In the United Kingdom, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded funding of £1.15 million ($1.88 million) to Robert Gordon University (RGU) and University of St. Andrews researchers for a four-year project aimed at utilizing solar energy to produce ethanol from cellulosic waste products.

The proposed project aims to produce ethanol from cellulosic waste instead of food crops, including cellulose rich straw and recovered paper, using photocatalysis combined with the fermentation process in a single reactor. Photocatalysis - the use of a catalyst to accelerate a photoreaction by generating free radicals - will be used to release sugars from cellulose which will then pass through a semi-permeable membrane before being fermented into ethanol.

Previous attempts to harness cellulosic waste have used extreme treatment conditions to release the usable sugars, with enzymes, acid and alkali explosion, wet oxidation and steam explosion being combined with high pressures and temperatures. Such procedures are expensive, energy demanding and generate hazardous waste. The latest research approach has multiple advantages such as using a catalyst that is low cost, non-toxic, self-cleaning, recoverable and activated by harvested sunlight.