Biofuel production boost from catalyst made from palladium and bacteria

Biofuels made from renewable materials offer an alternative to petroleum-based sources, but many biofuels are costly to produce because the precursor product -  bio-oil - must be processed before it is sent to the refinery to be turned into liquid fuel.

B.K. Sharma and his co-authors at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Centre (part of the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois) have identified and tested a new processing method that promises to overcome this step.

"Bio-oil forms from the same chemical reaction that forms petroleum," Sharma said in a statement. "But what takes millions of years naturally in the ground takes only minutes in the lab using a process that is very similar to pressure cooking."

Published in the journal Fuel, their findings are said to point to a cheaper, more environmentally friendly and renewable catalyst for processing that uses common bacteria and the palladium, which can be recovered from waste sources such as discarded electronics, catalytic converters, and processed sewage.