New technique for converting biomass to liquid fuel

The woody material in plants used to produce biomass is made of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Lignin is difficult to break down, meaning the conversion of biomass to liquid fuel usually requires high amounts of energy or the use of heavy chemicals.

To overcome this problem, the researchers combined biomass (raw wood sawdust) with a catalyst made up of the metal complex niobium phosphate that had small particles of platinum dotted across the surface. The mixture was brewed at 190 degrees Celsius and 50 atmospheres for 20 hours, resulting in the lignin being broken down. According to the scientists, the discovery opens up the possibility of manufacturing liquid fuel from biomass using catalysts. The work is published in Nature Communications. 

“The conversion of biomass into fuels typically requires separations and pre-treatments to the raw biomass, thus suffering high energy penalties,” said lead author Dr Sihai Yang from the Manchester University.