Cellulosic Ethanol through the Thermochemical Route may serve to be the best way to derive Cellulose based Biofuels..

This post throws light one of the research efforts on the thermochemical route to derive celluose based ethanol. Scientists at the Concordia University after having worked on for many years have discovered a thermo-catalytic process, which can convert cellulosic biomass into ethanol .

The researchers there believe that this is a one-step process and this method is extremely energy efficient. The researchers are waiting to get this method patented and who knows? This might be the best method to derive cellulosic ethanol from cellulosic biomass such as waste.

Researchers from the University also claim that the ethanol they produce through this thermochemical route can directly be fed into the vehicle avoiding the step of any biorefining.

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About the Thermochemical process to derive cellulose based ethanol .
The thermo chemical route is the best way to produce cellulosic ethanol claims different scientists. Thermo chemical conversion of biomass into fuels is the solution that will be able to allow countries to meet the ethanol demand while not placing stress on food resources or land use.

Thermo chemical conversion process involves three main steps:

Gasification, wherein the biomass is dried, reduced in particle size and mechanically fed into a gasifier. . It then heated to a high temperature in an oxygen-limited steam environment to produce synthesis gas which is then scrubbed to remove trace elements. The use of gasification allows many types of waste biomass to be used as a feedstock since it is reduced to its basic components. Waste biomasses such as forestry residues, mill residues, agricultural waste, MSW, etc. are considered to be ideal feedstocks since essentially the same syngas is produced from all of them.

Catalysis wherein the cleaned syngas is passed over a catalyst in a fixed bed reactor; the catalyst converts syngas into an alcohols mixture of methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, and water.

Purification wherein the alcohol mixture is dehydrated, and the water is recycled. The alcohols are then separated to specification purity for different uses, including liquid fuels.

The bioethanol thus produced from the thermochemical route helps in reducing the GHG as discussed in the previous post. Apparently, it also solves the problem of carbon dioxide sequestration.

More about the thermochemical route to produce Cellulosic Ethanol