Plastic that grows on trees, part two

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Release date: May 19, 2009

One-step process derives raw material for fuels and plastic from plants rather than crude oil

RICHLAND, Wash. – Some researchers hope to turn plants into a renewable, nonpolluting replacement for crude oil. To achieve this, scientists have to learn how to convert plant biomass into a building block for plastics and fuels cheaply and efficiently. In new research, chemists have successfully converted cellulose -- the most common plant carbohydrate -- directly into the building block called HMF in one step.

The result builds upon earlier work by researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In that work, scientists produced HMF from simple sugars derived from cellulose. In this new work, researchers developed a way to bypass the sugar-forming step and go straight from cellulose to HMF. This simple process generates a high yield of HMF and allows the use of raw cellulose feed material, the researchers report in an upcoming issue of Applied Catalysis A.

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