Let’s hope this makes better sense than ethanol from corn:
Researchers bring bio-fuel alternative a step closer
SCIENTISTS are a step closer to producing an efficient, low-cost bio-fuel alternative to fossil fuels as a result of research by Curtin University’s Fuels and Energy Technology Institute. [...]
[...]
Dr Hu says the results were also useful in the design of novel stable and efficient catalysts to deal with the complex bio-oil and that the methods developed for regeneration of deactivated catalysts could help to reduce cost of upgrading bio-oil.
“We are currently developing the new-generation of upgrading catalysts to efficiently upgrade bio-oil to biofuels for use in transportation.”
“The catalysts to be developed [are] high performance and low cost, which is one of the key factors in reducing the cost in upgrading of bio-oil to bio-fuel.
“We also made great effort to develop a new upgrading process to increase the efficiency for the conversion of bio-oil into biofuels.
“I believe we have made some breakthroughs in the process design and are now working to optimise it.”
The research appears in the Applied Energy journal.
