Catalyst Converts Biomass to Liquid Fuel

Mar-31-16 Scientists have developed a new way to create liquid fuel from raw biomass without the need for pre-treatment with chemicals or using large amounts of energy.

Biomass produced from the woody material of plants, which includes a material called lignin. Lingin is difficult to break down, which means the biomass producing process requires heavy chemicals and much energy.

To reduce the use of energy and chemicals, researchers combined the biomass (raw wood sawdust) with a metal complex niobium phosphate which had small particles of platinum dotted across the surface. The mixture was then heated for twenty hours at 190°C, at a pressure of fifty atmospheres, which caused the catalyst to break down and convert the lignin without pre-treatment. The team hopes the finding could lead to more catalysts able to convert biomass into fuel.

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