{"id":23552,"date":"2014-12-02T03:06:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T01:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=23552"},"modified":"2014-12-01T11:08:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T09:08:06","slug":"researchers-find-way-turn-sawdust-gasoline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/researchers-find-way-turn-sawdust-gasoline\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers find way to turn sawdust into gasoline"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cEssentially, the method allows us to make a \u2018petrochemical\u2019 product using biomass \u2013 thus bridging the worlds of bio-economics and petro chemistry,\u201d says co-author Dr. Bert Lagrain. (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Researchers at KU Leuven\u2019s Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis have successfully converted sawdust into building blocks for gasoline. Using a new chemical process, they were able to convert the cellulose in sawdust into hydrocarbon chains. These hydrocarbons can be used as an additive in gasoline, or as a component in plastics. The researchers reported their findings in the journal Energy & Environmental Science<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cellulose is the main substance in plant matter and is present in all non-edible plant parts of wood, straw, grass, cotton and old paper. \u201cAt the molecular level, cellulose contains strong carbon chains. We sought to conserve these chains, but drop the oxygen bonded to them, which is undesirable in high-grade gasoline. Our researcher Beau Op de Beeck developed a new method to derive these hydrocarbon chains from cellulose,\u201d explains Professor Bert Sels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a new type of bio-refining, and we currently have a patent pending for it. We have also built a chemical reactor in our lab: we feed sawdust collected from a sawmill into the reactor and add a catalyst \u2013 a substance that sets off and speeds the chemical reaction. With the right temperature and pressure, it takes about half a day to convert the cellulose in the wood shavings into saturated hydrocarbon chains, or alkanes,\u201d says Dr. Bert Lagrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, the method allows us to make a \u2018petrochemical\u2019 product using biomass \u2013 thus bridging the worlds of bio-economics and petro chemistry,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

The result is an intermediary product that requires one last simple step to become fully-distilled gasoline, explains Sels. \u201cOur product offers an intermediate solution for as long as our automobiles run on liquid gasoline. It can be used as a green additive \u2013 a replacement for a portion of traditionally-refined gasoline.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the possible applications go beyond gasoline: \u201cThe green hydrocarbon can also be used in the production of ethylene, propylene and benzene \u2013 the building blocks for plastic, rubber, insulation foam, nylon, coatings and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an economic standpoint, cellulose has much potential,\u201d says Sels. \u201cCellulose is available everywhere; it is essentially plant waste, meaning it does not compete with food crops in the way that first generation energy crops \u2013 crops grown for bioethanol, for example \u2013 do. It also produces chains of 5 to 6 hydrocarbon atoms \u2013 \u2018light nafta\u2019 in the technical jargon. We are currently facing shortages in this because it is becoming quite difficult and more expensive to distil these specific hydrocarbon chains from crude oil or shale gas. In time, hydrocarbon derived from cellulose may provide an alternative,\u201d says Sels.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur method could be especially useful in Europe, where we have little crude oil and cannot easily produce shale gas,\u201d concluded Sels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at KU Leuven\u2019s Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis have successfully converted sawdust into building blocks for gasoline. Using a new chemical process, they were able to convert the cellulose in sawdust into hydrocarbon chains. These hydrocarbons can be used as an additive in gasoline, or as a component in plastics. The researchers reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[13865],"class_list":["post-23552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-catholic-university-of-leuven-ku-leuven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23552"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=23552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}