Willows with 5X more sugar are naturals for biofuels, say UK researchers
In the UK, a research team at Imperial College has released a report identifying varietals of willows that contain up to five times as much sugar as standard willow trees, opening up new opportunities for willow-based biofuels,
“It would drastically reduce [the environmental impact of biofuels] because you would not need such a severe pre-treatment in the conversion process, which is currently one of the highest energy consumption steps in the process of converting woody biomass to biofuels,” report co-author Michael Ray told BBC News. “Our feeling is that these varieties that we know yield more sugar will need a much less severe pre-treatment process. Ultimately, we will work towards producing varieties that actually will not need any pre-treatment at all and will be able to dissolve them in enzymes without undergoing any pre-treatment processes.”
Category: Fuels
