Imaging biofuels

Skyrocketing petrol prices and growing concern over global warming has spawned massive growth of the biofuel industry, particularly ethanol production.

While corn has been the major raw material for producing ethanol, producers are looking for other more cost effective and sustainable crops and researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are looking at a novel way to help them determine what type of plant material offers the best solution.

Analytical chemist Emily Smith plans to use Raman imaging to study plant cell structure to determine which crops offer the right combination of cell wall composition and degradation to maximise the materials’ conversion to ethanol.  If successful, a simplified version of the test could even be used in the field to determine if plants were at the prime stage for harvest.

‘Just like vintners monitor and test the sugar content of their grapes in the field, biofuel producers could potentially use this technology to determine if their crop was at optimal development for conversion to ethanol,’ said Smith, who is also an Iowa State University assistant professor of chemistry.