'Mini-cellulose' discovery may maximize thermochemical processes

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Bryan Sims February 28, 2012

In thermochemical processes such fast pyrolysis or gasification, the breakdown of biomass into solid biopolymers—in particular cellulose, a polysaccharide that consists of long chains of tightly linked sugar subunits that must be broken down into simple sugars before they can be processed into biofuel or biobased chemicals—involves reactions that occur at such a rapid rate and are often so complicated in nature. The reactions are so fast and complex that current technology doesn’t allow operators to devise or employ reliable computer modeling systems to track and decipher the myriad of complex reactions of biomass in the process all the way to the chemical vapor products, most notably furans, an important precursor for the production of biofuels and biochemicals.

But a team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a small molecule, called α-cyclodextrin, which behaves the same as cellulose when it’s converted into biofuel. Coined the “mini-cellulose” molecule, according to Paul Dauenhauer, assistant professor of chemical engineering and leader of the UMass Amherst research team, it reveals for the first time the chemical reactions that take place in wood or prairie grasses during high-temperature conversion into biofuels. Dauenhauer and his team’s discovery was reported in the January 2012 issue of the journal Energy & Environmental Science and highlighted in Nature Chemistry.

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