Article source: Rutgers University
Researchers have developed a new process that could make it much cheaper to produce biofuels such as ethanol from plant waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Their approach, featuring an ammonia salt-based solvent that rapidly turns plant fibers into sugars needed to make ethanol, works well at close to room temperature, unlike conventional processes, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Green Chemistry.
“Our pretreatment system can slash – by up to 50-fold – the use of enzymes to turn solvent-treated cellulose (plant fiber) into glucose (a sugar) used to make bioproducts like ethanol,” said lead author Shishir P. S. Chundawat, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the School of Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “Similar processes could greatly reduce the cost of producing biofuels from waste biomass like corn stalks and leaves.”
The solvent can also extract more than 80 percent of the lignin in plant waste. Lignin, which binds to and fortifies plant fibers, could be used to help upgrade valuable aromatic chemicals in the future, according to Chundawat. The research benefited from collaborative efforts and access to a high-tech Bio-SANS instrument at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for analysis of how complex biological systems like plant waste respond during processing to better understand how cellulose is dissolved at a molecular level.
Corn stalks, leaves and other residue (called corn stover) and switchgrass, for example, have tightly packed cellulose microfibrils, which are tiny strands thinner than fibers. Microfibrils are difficult to break down using enzymes or microbes, making it hard to turn many plant-based materials in biomass into biofuels or biochemicals. Biomass includes microbial, plant or animal-derived materials used for renewable energy production and industrial processes.
The BioSANS instrument is located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility. The research was supported by DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.
