New fuel from straw

After harvest, wheat, barley, oats, rapeseed . emits a large biomass that can be used to produce second-generation biofuels.

>>>Processing bio-products turns straw into organic fertilizer

Statistics from Science Daily show that in the UK alone, after the main harvest, there are 12 million tons of straw. Although it has been used in animal husbandry, making organic fertilizer, as a material for growing mushrooms . but still exists a huge amount. Therefore, the new research direction of scientists is to process rice straw into economically valuable biofuels.

Sugar machinery for straw to be processed into biofuels - (Photo: Science Daily)

The straw itself contains a mixture of sugars that can be used as fuel without affecting food production. However, the types of sugar in straw are very complex and difficult to analyze into simple substances for ease of use.

Science Daily reported that Professor Keith Waldron and his colleagues used the device at Biorefinery Biological Institute, Norwich to pre-treat with the appropriate enzyme to convert the latent sugar in straw into glucose and ferment into ethanol.

One of the secrets to turning cellulose into glucose is to use the proper concentration of uronic acid to influence the catalytic enzyme. The amount of sugar obtained is also closely related to the effective removal of xylan in plant cell walls.

The research process of turning straw into fuel also helps the host increase productivity, increase disease resistance and make straw easier to process.