[Gasification] 'Mini-cellulose' molecule unlocks biofuel chemistry

[Dan Nave]

*A team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a small 
molecule that behaves the same as cellulose when it is converted to biofuel. Studying this 
'mini-cellulose' molecule reveals for the first time the chemical reactions that take place in wood 
and prairie grasses during high-temperature conversion to biofuel. The new technical discovery was 
reported in the January 2012 issue of the journal /Energy & Environmental Science/ and highlighted 
in /Nature Chemistry/. *

The "mini-cellulose" molecule, called ?-cyclodextrin, solves one of the major roadblocks confronting 
high-temperature biofuels processes such as pyrolysis or gasification. The complex chemical 
reactions that take place as wood is rapidly heated and breaks down to vapors are unknown. And 
current technology doesn't allow the use of computer models to track the chemical reactions taking 
place, because the molecules in wood are too large and the reactions far too complicated.

Paul Dauenhauer, assistant professor of chemical engineering and leader of the UMass Amherst 
research team, says the breakthrough achieved by studying the smaller surrogate molecule opens up 
the possibility of using computer simulations to study biomass. He says, "We calculated that it 
would take about 10,000 years to simulate the chemical reactions 
<http://www.physorg.com/tags/chemical+reactions/> in real cellulose 
<http://www.physorg.com/tags/cellulose/>. The same biofuel reactions with 'mini-cellulose' can be 
done in a month!"

Already his team has used insight from studying the "mini-cellulose" to make significant progress in 
understanding wood chemistry, Dauenhauer says. Using the faster computer simulations, they can track 
the conversion of wood all the way to the chemical vapor products. These reactions include creating 
furans, molecules <http://www.physorg.com/tags/molecules/> that are important for the production of 
biofuels.

The discovered reactions occurring within wood will serve as the basis for designing advanced 
biofuel reactors, Dauenhauer says.


[See the rest of the article at:]

<http://pda.physorg.com/news/2012-02-mini-cellulose-molecule-biofuel-chemistry.html>

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