{"id":1245,"date":"2005-06-04T13:33:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-04T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2005\/06\/04\/converting-plant-carbs-to-fuel\/"},"modified":"2005-06-04T13:33:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-04T13:33:00","slug":"converting-plant-carbs-to-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/converting-plant-carbs-to-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Converting Plant Carbs to Fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"
From Nature.com via Eco-Portal, news<\/a> of experiments at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with “[creating] fuel from the carbohydrates that make up about 75% of a plant’s dried weight.”<\/p>\n The result is a much more efficient use of plant material, report James Dumesic, a chemist from University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his colleagues in Science.<\/em> The plant-derived hydrocarbons are just like conventional diesel, notes Jens Rostrup-Nielsen of Haldor Topsoe, a chemical technology company based in Lyngby, Denmark, so they can be distributed through existing infrastructure. This makes the fuel easier to use than hydrogen, for example, which requires a different kind of pumping station and storage system.<\/p>\n If all goes according to plan, Dumesic estimates one could grow enough plants in the United States to power a significant percentage of the country’s vehicles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to the article, the process these scientists have created is much more efficient than the “energy-intensive” method of fermenting glucose into ethanol. There’s plenty of science here if you’re up on your chemistry. Sounds interesting — could this be another viable addition to a clean-energy mix?<\/p>\n Technorati tags: biofuels<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a> (subscription required)<\/p>\n