Biofuels (Energy)

A major challenge in developing biorefinery is that the availability of biomass often limits the scale of the plant thus the feasibility of an operation. We proposed an integrated lipid-based platform as one technical option. According to this concept, different biomass resources will be first...

Several crucial steps in the upgrading of biomass-derived raw materials involve acid catalyzed reactions, such as the hydrolysis of cellulose or the dehydration of sugars. Although heterogeneous catalysts are desired in large scale industrial processes, their application is limited by several...

Much of the process complexity and high capital costs associate with cellulosic ethanol (dilute acid hydrolysis as a pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification of cellulose) results from side products such as furfural, acetate, and soluble lignin compounds that inhibit the biocatalysts. Inhibitor...

Efficient breakdown of ligno-cellulosic material prior to fermentation for bio-fuel production is a key step in optimizing bio-fuel production. Current industrial practice involves chemical pretreatment and acid or enzymatic saccharification to prepare ligno-cellulosic biomass for fermentation. The...

Butanol has the potential to become a superior renewable fuel, either as a mixture with petroleum derived gasoline or as a stand-alone, neat fuel. The promise of butanol is currently marred by the relatively high cost of production. This paper explores a new and novel approach to the production of...

Hydrolysates from dilute acid pretreatment of biomass contain various biomass degradation products which are inhibitory to enzymes and toxic to microorganisms. One of the main inhibitory compounds is acetic acid which is released from the lignin-hemicellulose matrix in the biomass. Acetic acid at...

The development of new biomass sources for alternative fuels has become a subject of increasing importance as the nation strives to resolve the economic and strategic impacts of limited fossil fuel resources on our national security, environment, and global climate. Algae are among the most...

The conversion of C5-C6 sugars into 2-furfural (FA) and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) have been considered as key intermediate step in the production of transportation fuels and chemicals from ligno-cellulosic biomass. Typically, the process involves the dehydration reaction of the sugars catalyze...

Oxidation of polyols using Au-Pd and Au-Pt alloy supported nanocrystals Peter Miedziak a , Gemma L. Brett a , Yulia Ryabenkova a , Nikolaos Dimitratos a , Jose A. Lopez-Sanchez a , Meenakshisundaram Sankar a , Albert F. Carley a , Ram C. Tiruvalam b , Andrew A. Herzing c , Christopher J. Kiely b ,...

Research within the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center aims to better understand the bottlenecks associated with bioconversion of lignocellulose to liquid transportation fuels, knowledge which will then be used to improve the efficiency of this process. Much of these studies are currently...