Improved Catalysts
Before fuel can be produced, sugars and enzymes must be combined and transported into the cell.
Our researchers use high-throughput screening to identify and produce optimal enzymes and transporters.
Generating fuels from sugars is extremely energy intensive.
Our researchers are working to understand and manipulate anaerobic metabolic pathways so that we may achieve efficiencies that will make this conversion more economical.
During biomass processing, compounds that are toxic to microbes and enzymes are released.
We are working to identify robust catalysts that can function in toxic environments.
HIGHLIGHTS
Two-Step Chemical Method for Converting Untreated Biomass to Biofuel. Taking a chemical approach, GLBRC scientists developed a two-step method to convert raw, untreated biomass into a promising biofuel. The key to the new process is the first step in the conversion of cellulose into a “platform” chemical called 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from which a variety of valuable commodity chemicals can be made. The special mix of solvents and additives, for which a patent is pending, is effective because it has the capacity to slip between lignin molecules, which are notoriously hard to break apart. Once the solvent moves past the lignin, it is able to dissolve cellulose. In the second step, HMF is converted to the promising biofuel 2,5-dimethylfuran.
