Feb 5 2011
National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a one-year grant of $80,000 to Paul J. Dauenhauer who works as an assistant professor at the Amherst located University of Massachusetts.
Being a chemical engineer, Dauenhauer will utilize the award to conduct basic research on the thermal degradation of woody biomass during pyrolysis.
The research is anticipated to open up the intricate chemical process that occurs when the wood biomass is heated. According to Dauenhauer, when the woody biomass is heated to a very high temperature it reaches the liquid state, which remains for a short while before it changes into gas and the liquid state will help in the production of basic chemicals that are required for the production of biofuel. Though, scientists have observed the liquefaction stage they were unable to analyze the exact chemical reaction behind it. The research team has revealed the other facets of the pyrolysis process to create biofuels. The gasification process introduced by the team while drastically reduced the greenhouse gas discharges nearly doubled the quantity of fuel that can be produced from an acre of feedstock.
According to the NSF grant award, the research is anticipated to assist the scientists to comprehend the pyrolysis process better to discover new modes to deploy the technology on a large scale. The new process, which is expected to be honed in two years time, will introduce a production-ready method to change biomass into biofuel.