Liquid hydrocarbon fuels from cellulosic feedstocks via thermal deoxygenation of levulinic acid and formic acid salt mixtures

01 Dec 2011

US scientists have developed a route to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels in high yields from cellulosic feedstocks.

Conversion of cellulosic feedstocks into liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels could have a large impact on supplying our future energy needs. However, at present two barriers hinder it’s commercial implementation; first, the high cost per unit product as the feedstock energy feed rate is much smaller than in the petroleum industry; and secondly, the high operating cost to convert cellulosic material into energy dense biofuels partly due to the high cost of removing oxygen from the biomass.

In this work, Clayton Wheeler and colleagues from the Bioproducts Research Institute at the University of Maine, USA have used formic acid as a hydrogen source in the thermal deoxygenation of levulinic acid, giving high yields of deoxygenated hydrocarbons. This methods has significant advantages, providing a high-yield, robust, low-pressure, non-catalytic route to hydrocarbon mixtures from biomass, which are similar to petroleum crude oils.