Purdue University Develops Novel Mobile Biofuel Processing Method

Purdue University chemical engineers have created a novel method for the processing of biomass and agricultural wastes into biofuels. They are also proposing to create mobile processing facilities that would propel the region of the Midwest to produce biofuels. All biomass varieties such as wheat straw, rice husks, corn stover, switchgrass and wood chips can be processed.

This new method termed as fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation works by way of adding hydrogen into the reactor for biomass processing. Hydrogen derived from the biomass or natural gas would be used for the mobile plants. This method, also termed as H2Bioil, has been studied comprehensively through experiments and modeling at the Purdue University for validating the concept.

This method avoids a basic economic barrier in biofuels, which is the expensive process of transporting biomass due to its bulk volume, while transporting liquid fuel obtained from biomass proves to be more economical. Moreover, in comparison with present technologies, this method is likely to produce around two times the amount of biofuel when hydrogen is generated from natural gas.