A FAST TRACK TO GREEN GASOLINE

Abstract

THE PROCESS OF CONVERTING wood chips, agricultural wastes, and other stores of biomass into transportation fuels has captured the imaginations of many scientists. One of these researchers is chemical engineer George W. Huber, whose group at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is reporting a selective catalytic pyrolysis process that for the first time permits direct conversion of cellulose into compounds that can be used to make gasoline ( ChemSusChem , DOI: 10.1002/cssc.200800018). A big holdup in biomass conversion is the “recalcitrance” of the plant material—that is, the inability to quickly and economically transform the complex matrix of carbohydrates in plant cell walls directly into useful chemicals and transportation fuels. Investigators are pursuing several physical, chemical, and biological approaches to overcome the recalcitrance problem, including the pyrolysis technique developed by Huber and graduate students Torren R. Carlson and Tushar P. Vispute. Pyrolysis is a well-established meth...