Water Converts Wood To Biofuel

It is not easy to make biofuels from food crops, mainly because it is controversial and it can raise the cost of corn and grain. This can influence the global food prices. On the other hand, making the alternative fuel from non-food crops or making it from waste wood is rather expensive. Next to that the process is chemical- and energy-intensive.

Now, a start-up company called Renmatix has the answer: use water to extract the sugars.
The process, which involves supercritical water, isn’t that exotic. In fact, it’s already used to decaffeinate coffee and extract hops to make beer. Supercritical water is basically water heated beyond its boiling point under high pressure. At that point, the water becomes something between a liquid and a gas.

The company puts wood chips in a chamber with the supercritical water. This breaks off some of the sugars, the ones with five carbon atoms. The wood is then sent to another chamber to release the remaining sugars. What’s left is lignin, a component of wood, which can be burned to provide energy for the whole process.

Once the sugars are extracted you can transform them into biofuels, which are largely ethanol. Ethanol can be mixed with gasoline which can power our cars. Ethanol is widely used in Brazil. There, Ethanol is made from sugar cane.

But that’s the problem: it’s a lot easier to get sugars from food, such as corn. Producing biofuels without stressing food supplies or putting more land under cultivation will be a tall order: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed that the country produce 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, 16 billion gallons of which has to be cellulosic biofuel. The Renewable Fuels Association says the current production is about 13 billion gallons. That’s why companies such as Renmatix are looking for plant material which we don’t eat.

Source : http://www.tomorrowisgreener.com/water-converts-wood-to-biofuel/