Liquid clean fuels reduce fossil energy dependence

For the first time, scientists have overcome the difficulty of separating raw biomass without using chemicals, and have produced a record-high amount of liquid hydrocarbon fuels.

This success is one step further in reducing reliance on fossil fuels, and is an important step in the transition to renewable energy use.

In the context of the world trying to reduce dependence on fossil solid fuels, the ability to produce sustainable fuels from renewable biomass materials is becoming increasingly important.

Producing and utilizing biomass fuels opens up a new way of producing almost carbon-free energy, because carbon dioxide will be recycled during photosynthesis.

The whole world is trying to reduce its dependence on fossil solid fuels.

In plants, the wood used for fuel consists of three components: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.Lignin is a challenge in the preparation of bioenergy because it is difficult to break down and is difficult to convert into useful fuels without strong chemicals or large quantities. Therefore, up to a third of plant fuels are at risk of being wasted when they are considered to be cheap burning materials.

A team of scientists from the University of Manchester and East China University of Science and Technology have tunneled a catalyst derived from the metal compound niobium phosphate with small platinum molecules on the surface and sprinkled with dust. Fresh wood mites in 20 hours at 190 degrees Celsius, pressure 50 atmosphere.

As a result, this catalyst has the ability to directly break down and convert lignin. This will be the basis for developing catalysts capable of converting biomass material into fuel.

Dr Sihai Yang, the lead researcher, said: "The conversion of biomass material into fuel requires the separation and processing of raw biomass first, so it is easy to risk energy consumption. The new work shows that the ability to break down carbon-oxygen bonds is very strong, so it can directly convert raw biomass into liquid fuel without using chemicals. lots of energy".