Green Gasoline: Fuel made from cellulose

April 16, 2008

Green Gasoline
Photo: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) have made an exciting breakthrough in developing “Green Gasoline”, a substance with very similar properties to ordinary Gasoline, except it is derived from plant cellulose.

The steps involved to produce the Green Gasoline involve rapidly heating the cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts and then quickly cooling the products to obtain a liquid that has many of the compounds found in ordinary gasoline. The entire process takes less than 2 minutes and uses only a small amount of heat. This liquid can be treated further or used as is for a high octane blend.

This Green Gasoline could be obtained from crops such as Poplar trees and Switchgrass, both of which could be grown on marginal land, thereby saving the better soils for food crops.

Other advantages with the Green Gasoline is that it can be used in existing engines, requires much less energy to make than ethanol and the excess heat can be used to produce electricity. The carbon footprint for producing this fuel could well be zero if the excess heat is used to produce power.

So when will we see Green Gasoline in our service stations and fuel tanks, maybe not for 5 - 10 years

Website: Green Gasoline via Ecofuss



Written by Craig · Filed Under Energy, Fuel, Plants, Political 

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