UMass Scientist Receives NSF Grant to Study Pyrolysis of Wood

Media Newswire
2-2-2011

(Media-Newswire.com) - AMHERST, Mass. - A chemical engineer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been awarded a one-year, $80,000 grant from the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) to conduct basic research on the chemical process pyrolysis - breaking down woody biomass by heating it.

The research, to be done by Paul J. Dauenhauer, an assistant professor, seeks to unlock the complex chemistry that takes place when wood is heated. He says heating woody biomass to high temperatures actually creates a brief liquid state before it turns to gas and that liquid state is of particular interest to scientists trying to produce the basic chemicals needed for biofuels. Dauenhauer says this liquification stage has been observed, but scientists don’t understand all of the chemical reactions they are seeing.

"It’s a very complex process and we’d like to have a much better understanding of what is taking place," Dauenhauer says. He is particularly focused on that transition from a solid to a liquid state. "This is basic research on a process we don’t fully understand."

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