14 DAY TRIAL // Who needs petrol or money for that matter as long as 'green gasoline' exists? Iraq war is over, fellas, you can go home now, because scientists have just discovered a way to convert biomass into a liquid very similar to standard gasoline. Furthermore, the University of Wisconsin-Madison also claims to have succeeded in creating chemical components for jet fuel through a process that is identical to that used to obtain 'green gasoline.'
The cellulose-conversion-to-gasoline-components technique was developed by chemical engineer George Huber and graduate students Torrent Carlson and Tushar Vispute from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst; however, James Dumesic of UWM was the first to create gasoline components out of biomass by using separate steps and without separation and purification processes.
Researchers reckon that it may take up to a decade until 'green gasoline' becomes wide-spread available, albeit the biggest challenges are behind them. "It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car. Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today," said Huber.
The process of converting cellulose to green gasoline involves a rapid heating of the cellulose in the presence of a solid catalyst. After the heating stage is complete, the obtained liquid is cooled rapidly, stage which enables the creation of gasoline components, such as naphthalene and toluene. These components make up to 25 percent of the whole volume of standard gasoline.
The conversion process takes as little as two minutes and the byproducts can be used as high octane gasoline additives. "Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel," said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research.
"In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce. Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the lifecycle greenhouse gas problem that has recently surfaced with corn ethanol and soy biodiesel," said Regalbuto.
According to Regalbuto, theoretically the conversion process doesn't require any input of energy; however, the reaction is exothermal and the released energy could be used to produce electric energy at the same time, thus removing any carbon footprint which may emerge in the outcome of the conversion reaction.
"We are currently working on understanding the chemistry of this process and designing new catalysts and reactors for this single step technique. This fundamental chemical understanding will allow us to design more efficient processes that will accelerate the commercialization of green gasoline," concluded Huber.