Engineer Granted $1.75 Million to Produce Hydrogen from Cellulosic Biomass

Media Newswire

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued the grant to Wu, a professor of chemical engineering, because he is one of the foremost scientists working to derive ethanol from biological waste products. Generating hydrogen gas, Wu explains, is very similar to generating ethanol, and he is employing state-of-the-art genomic approaches to study and enhance the abilities of a microorganism that has the capability to produce both fuels from farm and forest residues.

(Media-Newswire.com) - University of Rochester Professor David Wu has received a $1.75 million grant to investigate a way to turn waste biomass, such as grass clippings, cornstalks, and wood chips, into usable hydrogen or ethanol.

The U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ) issued the grant to Wu, a professor of chemical engineering, because he is one of the foremost scientists working to derive ethanol from biological waste products. Generating hydrogen gas, Wu explains, is very similar to generating ethanol, and he is employing state-of-the-art genomic approaches to study and enhance the abilities of a microorganism that has the capability to produce both fuels from farm and forest residues.

"Our goal is to understand how the bacterium controls the production of these two energy sources so we can engineer genetic modifications to enhance and control what it produces," says Wu. "It's an exciting possibility that we may be able to convert biomass we would have otherwise discarded, directly into usable liquid or gas fuel at will."

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