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More Bang for the Biofuel Buck

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2012Environmentabe products, acetone, artillery shells, bacterium, berkeley lab, biofuels, british, bullets, butanol, chaim weizmann, clostridium acetobutylicum, dean toste, diesel, douglas clark, elad gross, ethanol, fermentation technique, fuel molecules, gasoline, gunpowder, harvey blanch, hydrocarbons, jet fuel, joseph binder, lignocellulosic biomass, low carbon, metal catalyst, palladium, palladium catalyst, pazhamalai anbarasan, petrochemical processes, propellant, sanil sreekumar, weizmann organism, world war, zachary baer

Berkeley Lab Researchers Combine Old Fermentation Process For Making Explosives with New Chemical Catalysis to Boost Biofuel Production

A fermentation technique once used to make cordite, the explosive propellant that replaced gunpowder in bullets and artillery shells, may find an important new use in the production of advanced biofuels. With the addition of a metal catalyst, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that the production of acetone, butanol and ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass could be selectively upgraded to the high volume production of gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.

Using the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum, the Berkeley Lab researchers fermented the sugars found in biomass into the solvent acetone and the alcohols butanol and ethanol, collectively known as “ABE” products. They then catalyzed these low carbon number products with the transition metal palladium into higher-molecular-mass hydrocarbons that are possible precursors to the three major transportation fuel molecules. The specific type of fuel molecule produced – whether a precursor to gasoline, diesel or jet – was determined by the amount of time the ABE products resided with the palladium catalyst. (more…)

Fill ‘Er Up With Tobacco? Berkeley Lab-Led Team Explores New Path to Biofuels

By Guest PostFebruary 26, 2012Environmentarpa-e, berkeley lab, biofuels, capture co2, carbon bottlenecks, carbon into fuel, carbon uptake, cheryl kerfeld, christer jansson, corn ethanol, cyanobacteria, cyanobacteria genes, diesel, energy from sunlight, fuel molecules, gasoline, genetic engineering, hydrocarbon molecules, iconic plant, jet fuel, kris niyogi, microbes, miscanthus, peggy lemaux, plant biochemist, power plant emissions, renewables, switchgrass, tasios melis, tobacco, tobacco leaves, tobacco plants

*ARPA-E funded project aims to produce fuel molecules in plant leaves*

Mention biofuels and most people think of corn ethanol. Some may think of advanced biofuels from switchgrass or miscanthus. But tobacco? Not likely.

That could change. A team of scientists led by a researcher from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is exploring a way to produce gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from the iconic plant of the South. (more…)

Primordial Dry Ice Fuels Comet Jets

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2010Scienceastronomy, carbon dioxide, co2 gas, comet, comet tempel 1, cometary nucleus, deep impact spacecraft, digital color cameras, dry ice, epoxy mission, gas, hartley 2, infrared spectrometer, jessica sunshine, jet fuel, lori feaga, michael a'hearn, nucleus, particles, particles of dust, solar system, telescope, tempel 1, tony farnham, university of maryland, water vapor

*Initial science results on comet released from University of Maryland, much more to come UMD scientists say.*

Jets Galore. This enhanced image, one of the closest taken of comet Hartley 2. Image credit: University of Maryland

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – One of the biggest comet findings coming out of the amazing images and data taken by the University of Maryland-ledEPOXI mission as it zipped past comet Hartley 2 last week is that dry ice is the ‘jet’ fuel for this comet and perhaps many others.

Images from the flyby show spectacular jets of gas and particles bursting from many distinct spots on the surface of the comet. This is the first time images of a comet have been sharp enough to allow scientists to link jets of dust and gas with specific surface features. Analysis of the spectral signatures of the materials coming from the jets shows primarily CO₂ gas (carbon dioxide) and particles of dust and ice.

“Previously it was thought that water vapor from water ice was the propulsive force behind jets of material coming off of the body, or nucleus, of the comet,” said University of Maryland Astronomy Professor Jessica Sunshine, who is deputy principal investigator for the EPOXI mission. “We now have unambiguous evidence that solar heating of subsurface frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice), directly to a gas, a process known as sublimation, is powering the many jets of material coming from the comet. This is a finding that only could have been made by traveling to a comet, because ground based telescopes can’t detect CO₂ and current space telescopes aren’t tuned to look for this gas,” Sunshine said. (more…)

Tag Archives: jet fuel

More Bang for the Biofuel Buck

Fill ‘Er Up With Tobacco? Berkeley Lab-Led Team Explores New Path to Biofuels

Primordial Dry Ice Fuels Comet Jets