One-pot to prep biomass for biofuels
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 08:30
in Mathematics & Economics
(Phys.org) —The advantages of the "one-stop" shop have long been recognized in the retailing and services industries. Similar advantages would also be realized for the biofuels industry with the development of a "one-pot" processing system in which sugars could be extracted from biomass and turned into fuels in a single vat. A major step forward in this goal has now been achieved by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) who report the first demonstration of a one-pot, wash-free, process for the ionic liquid pretreatment and saccharification of switchgrass, one of the leading potential biofuel feedstocks.