14 DAY TRIAL // Biodiesel has been around for quite a while now, and, with the help of researchers working with the University of California, Davis in the United States, it might soon get a companion: biogasoline.
In a press release issued on the University's website just yesterday, a team of scientists announce that they have pieced together a chemical process that makes it possible to turn plant waste into gasoline-like fuels.
More precisely, the chemists claim that, thanks to the process they have invented, farm and forestry waste can be used to make a plant-based gasoline replacement.
In a paper published in the journal Angewandte Chemie in late January, the University of California, Davis researchers detail that traditional diesel fuel comprises long and straight chains of carbon atoms.
Gasoline, on the other hand, is made up of shorter and branched chains of carbon atoms. This is the reason why gasoline and diesel behave differently when exposed to certain temperatures and pressures.
“What's exciting is that there are lots of processes to make linear hydrocarbons, but until now nobody has been able to make branched hydrocarbons with volatility in the gasoline range,” study lead author Mark Mascal explains the importance of the process he and his colleagues have developed.
By the looks of it, the raw material needed to obtain a plant-based gasoline replacement is levulinic acid. This chemical compound can be produced by processing materials such as straw, corn stalks and other organic waste.
“Essentially it could be any cellulosic material. Because the process does not rely on fermentation, the cellulose does not have to be converted to sugars first,” says researcher Mark Mascal.
The scientists expect that, should their method of turning farm and forestry waste into biogasoline start being used on a commercial scale, the global market for renewable fuels would greatly expand.
As the researchers write on the University of California, Davis' website, “Biodiesel, refined from plant-based oils, is already commercially available to run modified diesel engines. A plant-based gasoline replacement would open up a much bigger market for renewable fuels.”