Iowa State's role in the future of biofuels

Des Moines Register
10:48 PM, May. 7, 2011
Written by DAN PILLER

Ames, Ia. - Prototypes of the biofuels refinery of the future sit in a 19,000-square-foot complex on the Iowa State Research Farm west of Ames.

Two experimental plants, whose network of pipes and containers looks to the lay person like a microbrewery on steroids, produce oil from biomass such as corn stover, switchgrass, miscanthus, wood chips and algae.

One plant produces biocrude through a form of incineration called pyrolysis, which heats biomass to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit in an oxygen-free environment and then decomposes the biomass to vapors and aerosols.

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