New Technique Converts Sawdust into the Building Blocks for Gasoline

There may just be a new, sustainable fuel sources. Scientists have figured out a way to convert sawdust into the building blocks for gasoline, which may give researchers a new avenue when it comes to looking for sustainable fuel sources.

Cellulose is the main substance in plant matter. It's present in all non-edible plant parts of wood, straw, grass, cotton and old paper. At the molecular level, cellulose contains strong carbon chains, the researchers wanted to conserve these chains while at the same time dropping the oxygen bonded to them, which is undesirable in high-grade gasoline.

"This is a new type of bio-refining, and we currently have a patent pending for it," said Bert Lagrain, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We have also built a chemical reactor in our lab: we feed sawdust collected from a sawmill into the reactor and add a catalyst-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."

The new method allows the researches to create a petrochemical product using these wood shavings. That said, this is an intermediary product that still requires another step before it becomes fully-distilled gasoline. Yet it's an important step forward when it comes to creating sustainable fuel.

"The green hydrocarbon can also be used in the production of ethylene, propylene and benzene-the building blocks for plastic, rubber, insulation foam, nylon, coatings and so forth," said Bert Sels, one of the researchers. "From an economic standpoint, cellulose has much potential. Cellulose is available everywhere; it is essentially plant waste, meaning it does not compete with food crops in the way that first generation energy crops-crops grown for bioethanol, for example-do."

The findings are published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.