Gasoline From Grass

  • James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his former student George Huber, now at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, are breaking new ground in the development of an alternative fuel called "green gasoline." (Photo by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, courtesy of the National Science Foundation)

Emerging research is proving gasoline and jet
fuel don’t have to be made from petroleum. Lisa Ann
Pinkerton reports the next generation of fuel might
just grow on trees:

Transcript

Emerging research is proving gasoline and jet
fuel don’t have to be made from petroleum. Lisa Ann
Pinkerton reports the next generation of fuel might
just grow on trees:

Researchers from the National Science Foundation say they’re using switchgrass
and agricultural waste, such as corn stalks, to make liquids very similar to gasoline and
jet fuel.

Spokesman John Regalbuto says, unlike ethanol, these new systems
don’t result in a 30% drop in mileage and the fuels can be distributed by today’s system.

“So you can use them in your car right now with no alteration of the engines. You
can ship them in pipelines, you
can use them in existing petroleum refineries.”

It might be 5 to 10 years before green gasoline or jet fuel make it to mass
production, but Regalbuto says the research published in this month’s Journal of
Chemistry & Sustainability shows that it can be done.

For the Environment Report, I’m Lisa Ann Pinkerton

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