NIST, NREL release new report on optimization of cellulosic ethanol process

A research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have published a report determining the theoretical limits of reactions that are critical to the extraction of glucose from cellulose and hemicellulose.

“Cellulose and hemicellulose are recalcitrant,” NIST chemist Robert Goldberg told Science Daily. “They don’t want to break down. It takes a long time for wood to rot. It even takes termites a long time to break wood down, and they’re pretty good at it. Ethanol producers face the same problem. Because of the way these molecules are arranged, it’s difficult to get access to the reactive centers in wood and other biomass. What we have done is to study some of the most basic reactions associated with the breakdown of these materials.”

The team said that process engineering and bioengineers can use the resulting “thermodynamic property values” to maximize the efficiency of cellulosic ethanol production.

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