U.S. DOE award gives $1.4M for biofuels research in Tennessee

In Tennessee, researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture are getting $1.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy over the next two years through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative. The projects are focused on the development of commercial applications for biofuels as well as biobased energy and biobased products.

David Harper, an associate professor of materials science in the UT Center for Renewable Carbon, told WGNS that “the research will build on existing science to use plant materials from grasses, hardwoods and softwoods to produce commercially valuable products like chemicals, fuels and industrial materials. The goal is to get the biobased products, including fuel, more cost effective. ‘We can do this by loading biomass into a solvent at greater than 20 percent in the presence of catalysts to deconstruct and separate plant sugars from lignin,’ Harper explains. ‘Plant sugars, cellulose and hemicelluloses, will then be upgraded to liquid aviation fuels, or alkanes. Lignin will then be readily converted into carbon foams and activated carbons. The carbon then becomes the basis for products like filters and high-temperature insulation. It can also be used for energy storage, such as in lithium ion batteries.’