A Catalyst For the Future: WFU researchers are developing a cheaper way to make biodiesel

Winston-Salem Journal Now
By Richard Craver Journal Reporter
Published: May 2, 2009

Biodiesel is not likely to replace gasoline as the main source of transportation fuel in most of our lifetimes.

But researchers at Wake Forest University are convinced that they have a formula for a catalyst that could lower the cost of producing biodiesel enough so that it could provide 5 percent of the nation's needs.

"If we, as a nation, can do that, that's enough biodiesel to replace the need for oil from a country such as Iraq," said Abdessadek Lachgar, a chemistry professor at the university and one of two officials supervising the project along with Marcus Wright, a lab manager and investigator in the biodiesel work.

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