New Screening Method to Find Better Biofuel Crops
June 8, 2007| |
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are looking at a novel way to help them determine what type of plant material offers a more cost effective and sustainable biofuel crop. Emily Smith, analytical chemist and Iowa State University assistant professor of chemistry, plans to develop a simplified version of the Raman imaging to study plant cell structure. This would determine which crops offer the right combination of cell wall composition and degradation to maximize the materials’ conversion to ethanol.
“Just like vintners who monitor and test the sugar content of their grapes in the field, biofuel producers could potentially use this technology to determine if their crop was at optimal development for conversion to ethanol,” said Smith. She added that the method needs very small pieces of plant material and thus multiple samples can be analyzed quickly.
See the press release at
http://www.ameslab.gov/final/News/2007rel/Raman_imaging.html
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