Sawdust-to-Biofuels Procedure Breakthrough Could Allow More Waste to be Turned Into Energy
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 07.23.08
In the ongoing food versus fuel discussion, using waste products from agriculture or municipal waste is often cited as being the solution as to how to produce liquid biofuels without impacting available agricultural land and increasing food prices. Producing liquid biofuels from wood waste is promising from the standpoint of availability, but is more difficult to turn into usable fuel than other products. However, a new breakthrough from China, reported on in New Scientist, offers a potential solution to this problem.
Lignin Broken Down Under Near-Critical Water
In summary, the process developed by Yuan Kou and a team of researchers at Peking University, breaks down the lignin in the wood by breaking carbon-oxygen-carbon bonds using highly heated, highly pressurized water as a solvent. When combined with a catalyst and hydrogen gas, water heated to 250-300°C and pressurized to 7000 kilopascals has been found to reliably break down these C-O-C bonds to be produce alkanes and alcohols needed for biofuels.
“For the first time, we have produced alkanes, the main component of gasoline and diesel, from lignin, and biomethanol becomes available. A large percentage of the starting material is converted into useful products, but this is still in its infancy so other aspects related to economic issue will be evaluated in the near future,” Yan said.
Read more detailed information on the research: "Chemical breakthrough turns sawdust into biofuel" in :: New Scientist.
photo: Getty Images
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It sounds to be an interesting possiblitly, but lets not forget that we should not use all of our ag waste for fuel. It is very important that ag waste is incorporated back into the soil as organic matter! If we strip the land completely clean nothing will grow, food or fuel.
good lord...you would definitely expect water heated to 300C and 1000 psi would break it down.
they have a saying in the pulp/paper industry that goes: "you can do everything in the world with lignin except make money"
I wonder if Ag waste could include grass clippings? Talk about a renewable resource...
Seconding James, and adding that as pelleted wood fuels become a more prevalent and ecologically acceptable fuel source, we will face the same economic issues we faced with first generation biofuels with wood waste products. With the new combustion technologies available for pellet burning, I would ask why add a step? The Stanley Steamer is still a great car a hundred plus years later; why not bring it up to date?
HG
Food vs. fuel argument: it's hard to listen when food is thrown into the trash. Waste not – want not.
How will this affect demand for wood as fuel? I personally would hate to see a similar situation to the current ethanol issue: as more fuel-from-wood is used, more is demanded, thus giving an excuse to cut more trees. Then this fuel would no longer be coming from a waste product.
Personally I still say we need to stop burning stuff.
Isn't algae better?
The heat and pressure could be provided directly by solar thermal plants, which could be located at the source of the waste. The intermittent production of such plants would be mitigated by the production of the fuel, which is a way to store the energy.
@ James
As an amateur organic gardener, its hard to disagree with that. However, wood waste has a very high carbon to nitrogen ratio and makes a poor compost. It takes a long time to break down into usable stuff.
@ Mark
What do you mean? That it's more efficient to feed the wood waste to algae to breakdown instead of using this process? Or that algae produces better biofuel?
take all waste streams - all garbage (except metals) all sewage solids & by the "Anything Into Oil" process you have diesel fuel, minerals, methane & water vapor
the simplest is the best