Researchers from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin Madison (United States) have recently reported the use of a “simple chemical transformation” process to convert lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels. Their study is recently published in the Journal of the American Society (URL above). Presently, the biochemical route is the more common method for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuel, ethanol (often named “cellulosic ethanol”). This involves multi-step processes from pretreatment (lignin removal), to saccharification (cellulose conversion to simple sugars), and then fermentation (microbial conversion of simple sugars to ethanol). The reported chemical process utilizes a patent-pending solvent system which dissolves cellulose in the plant biomass and converts them into the chemical, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) (first step). HMF is said to be a “chemical platform” from which other useful biofuels can be made. According to doctoral student and co-author, Ronald Raines, the solvent system is “not corrosive, dangerous, expensive or stinky”. The cellulose-to-HMF conversion process is also unaffected by the presence of lignin, protein, and other components in the plant biomass. In the second step, the converted HMF is transformed to 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), a promising biofuel. The process has been tested on corn stover, and pine sawdust. The current yield of the process estimated at 30 gallons of the biofuel product per ton of biomass processed. Optimization of the second step is ongoing..