A simple catalytic process converts plant sugars into fuel

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a simple, two-step chemical process to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon fuels. The compounds created during the process could also be used to make other industrial chemicals and plastics.
The Wisconsin researchers, led by chemical- and biological-engineering professor James Dumesic employ chemical reactions with catalysts at high temperatures to convert glucose into hydrocarbon biofuels in smaller, cheaper reactors. The catalytic process is done in two main steps, which can be integrated and run sequentially with the output from one reactor going to the other in a continuous process with catalyst recycling. In the first reactor has platinum-rhenium catalyst at about 500 K and the second has various solid catalysts such as copper and magnesium-based catalyst. The first reactor creates a mixture of various hydrocarbon compounds, such as alcohols and organic acids which is transferred to the second reactor, where it results in a range of hydrocarbon molecules that make up gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
This research can use sugars derived from cellulosic biomass such as agricultural waste and switchgrass instead of using food sources such as corn and sugarcane that are economically competitive with petroleum fuels.