This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)
Intellectual Merit: To date, all biomass conversion processes are limited in the fraction of lignocellulosic-derived carbon that is converted to liquid fuel. Based on total lignocellulosic carbon mass and current conversion processes, the carbon recovery into fuel is limited to less than 40%. In order to minimize the land area needed to grow biomass to meet our nation?s liquid fuel demand for the transportation sector, it is essential that the efficiency of conversion of biomass carbon to liquid fuel be maximized. To this end the synergistic development of a thermal conversion process using catalysts is envisioned, with optimized structures and composition of lignocellulosic biomass, to yield directly high-energy density liquid fuels. If direct conversion cannot be optimized, oxygen removal from the biomass will be improved for a bio-crude that may be further refined. Preliminary data indicate a dependence on cell wall composition and structure for the reaction products of biomass in pyrolytic conditions. The basis for the work is the hypothesis that modification of key molecular bonds in wall architecture will reduce the temperature (energy input) required to produce a bio-oil and also change the distribution of molecular species released during hydropyrolysis at the new temperature. The intellectual merit of this proposal resides in the synergistic development of fundamental knowledge in each of the areas: (i) a chemical process using fast-hydropyrolysis along with in-situ hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) for biomass conversion, (ii) suitable catalyst development to enhance activity and selectivity of the thermal reactions; (iii) gene discovery for engineering of biomass tailored for its end-use in fast-hydropyrolysis/HDO, (iv) scientific and technical knowledge base to build small-scale distributed plants with low energy inputs and low supplemental hydrogen consumption, avoiding transportation of biomass over long distances. Study of all these aspects in parallel will reveal synergies for the production of energy-dense liquid fuel molecules that have not been seen before. The diverse team brings together experts in plant genomics, reaction engineering, catalysis, process systems analysis, chemistry and chemical engineering to create an interdisciplinary knowledge base that transforms the carbon and energy efficiencies of biofuels production.
Broader impact: The proposed research and resulting technologies will have impact at multiple levels. They will introduce new and transformative concepts in the conversion of the entire biomass carbon to liquid fuel and will create scientific knowledge linking the physical and chemical structure of biomass to the conversion process using fasthydropyrolysis/ HDO. The use of maize mutants, transgenic lines, and diversity lines and their recombinant inbreds will allow rapid identification of genes controlling desirable quality traits that impact conversion efficiency for future translation to a variety of energy crops. Successful outcomes from the project will lead to the development of small distributed scale plants that will have environmental, commercial and economic impact of global proportions. The research results will be disseminated through conferences, journal articles, and the internet and by their incorporation in various energy-related courses and lectures at Purdue. Research opportunities will be provided to undergraduate and graduate students, and provided through existing outreach programs at Purdue. The PIs will disseminate information to and engage with chemical and energy companies to facilitate future implementation and thereby accelerate economic impact.
