A team of researchers from the Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, University of Leuven in Belgium have turned sawdust into petrol. Using a new chemical process, they have turned sawdust pulp into a hydrocarbons chain. These hydrocarbons can be used as an additive to petrol or as a component in plastics.
Researchers at the Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, University of Leuven in Belgium have published their findings in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.
Main substance, cellulose
Cellulose is the main substance of a plant’s matter and is present in all non-edible parts of plants such as wood, straw, grass, cotton and old paper. “At the molecular level, cellulose contains strong carbon chains. We have tried to keep these chains, but remove the oxygen attached to them, which is undesirable in high grade petrol. Our investigator Beau Op de Beeck developed a new method to derive these chains of hydrocarbons from cellulose, “explains Professor Bert Sels.
“This is a new type of biorefinery, and we are currently pending to patent it. We have also built a chemical reactor in our laboratory: we feed the reactor with sawdust collected in sawmill and we add a catalyst (a substance that initiates and accelerates the chemical reaction). With proper temperature and pressure, it takes about half a day to convert cellulose found in the wood chips into saturated hydrocarbons chains or alkanes, “says Dr. Bert Lagrain.
“Essentially, the method allows us to create a ‘petrochemical’ product from biomass, thereby helping to develop the world’s bio-economy and petrochemical chemistry,” he adds.
A green hydrocarbon
The result is an intermediate product which requires a final single step to become completely distilled petrol, Sels explains. “Our product offers a compromise solution during the time that our cars run on liquid fuel. It can be used as a green additive – a substitute for part of the traditionally refined petrol.”
But the possible applications go beyond petrol “Green hydrocarbone may also be used in the production of ethylene, propylene and benzene by using the sawdust blocks for plastic, rubber, foam insulation, nylon, and coatings and so forth”.
“From an economic standpoint, the cellulose has a lot of potential,” says Sels. “Cellulose is available anywhere in the world, it is essentially waste from the plant, which means it does not compete with food crops in the way that first-generation energy crops do (such as crops that are used to produce bioethanol, for example). It also produces chains of 5-6 hydrocarbon atoms, known in technical jargon as ‘light naphtha’. We now face a period of scarcity because it is increasingly difficult and more expensive to extract these specific hydrocarbon chains from crude oil or shale gas. Eventually, a hydrocarbon derived from cellulose may provide an alternative, “says Sels.
“Our method could be particularly useful in Europe, where we have little crude and cannot easily produce shale gas,” concluded Sels.
