New uses
New Biofuels- Advances and Current Research
08/06/2010
In Europe and America, businesses and scientific laboratories are concentrating on developing innovative biofuels. Developed from a wider variety of resources and using new biomass processes, these new biofuels are a complement to the biodiesels and bioethanol already on the market.
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Resourceful Plants…
At the moment, plants that are rich in either sugar or starch (sugar beet and cane sugar, wheat, corn, etc.) or oil (rapeseed, sunflower, soy, palm, etc.) are used to produce bioethanol and biodiesel.
Only the parts of the plant where these substances are stored are used (roots, seeds, fruit or tubers). Now however, researchers all over the world are developing second-generation biofuels. These new biofuels have advantages over the previous products.
They will be derived from a wider variety of resources including the non-food part of plants, animal fats, straw, wood, and agri-food waste. For example, in the future, ethanol may be derived from ligno-cellulosic biomass, i.e. from plant stems, tree trunks, and agricultural and forestry waste. Thus, new raw materials can be used in these processes in addition to biofuels already on the market.
The most advanced process at present involves generating synthetic biodiesel by hydrotreating vegetable oil or animal fat. It is currently in the industrialization stage and is set to expand. Industrial applications of another process, cellulosic ethanol, are expected to come on stream in the years to come. However, other channels still require significant research and development.
… Put to Use through New Production Channels
There are two ways of converting ligno-cellulosic biomass into biofuel:
• With the biochemical method, the cellulose contained in the stems and trunks of plants is extracted by removing the husk, which is made up of a substance called lignin. The cellulose undergoes a chemical reaction called hydrolysis, whereby enzymes (proteins that speed up chemical reactions) convert it into glucose (sugar). Next the sugar obtained is fermented to make bioethanol of exactly the same quality as ethanol obtained with traditional methods.
• With the thermochemical method, biomass is converted into gas by heating to 900℃ and placing it under high pressure. The synthetic gas thus obtained is made of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Finally, the gas undergoes a complex process known as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to convert it to a liquid fuel (generally diesel). The advantage of this method, which is also known as BTL (Biomass to Liquid) is that it produces a real synthetic fuel that can be mixed in any proportion with fossil fuels.
Algae, Fungi and Bacteria- the Microorganism Revolution
A number of experiments are currently underway to investigate the feasibility of using microorganisms to produce biofuel.
• Oil or hydrocarbons can be obtained from some varieties of algae and used to make biodiesel.
• Certain microorganisms facilitate the biochemical manufacturing method for second-generation biofuels by biodegrading plant cellulose and converting it into sugars that can be directly converted into bioethanol or other hydrocarbon molecules for use as fuel.
Biological conversion means complex molecules can be produced using less energy. It can also be used to generate chemical compounds – which is known as plant chemistry.
