National Science Foundation     |     Directorate for Engineering  (ENG) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, & Transport Systems  (CBET)   CBET Award Achievements (Nuggets) Notable Accomplishments from CBET Awards

Gasoline from Cellulose by Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis in a Single Reactor   George Huber  –  University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Background:  Biofuels from plant sources such as switchgrass and forest waste are becoming vitally important as our society moves away from petroleum-derived resources.  The current roadblock for producing these new biofuels is the lack of economical processes to convert the plant matter into liquids.  The ideal process would selectively produce a liquid biofuel from solid biomass in a single, small reactor.

Results:  Professor Huber’s group at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently demonstrated just this; that gasoline range aromatics and olefins can be produced from solid biomass-derived feedstocks quickly and in high yields in a single reactor over zeolite based catalysts.  This new process for biofuel production has been named “catalytic fast pyrolysis.”

Image 2.  In one reactor, cellulose is broken up into sugar fragments, which interact with a catalyst to become aromatic compounds used for gasoline.   Credit for Images 1 & 2:  George Huber, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

This project addresses the NSF Strategic Outcome Goals, as described in the NSF Strategic Plan 2006-2011, as follows:   Primary Strategic Outcome Goal:        (1) Discovery:  This is state of the art research at the intersection of bioengineering and chemical catalysis.                                                                        (1) Discovery Category:                                                                             - Disciplinary/Interdisciplinary Research                                                                             - CAREER: Faculty Early Career Program   Secondary Strategic Outcome Goals:  (2) Learning:  As a CAREER grant, there is especially heavy emphasis on the Educational Impact of this work.  Professor Huber was instrumental in a national NSF/DOE/ACS sponsored Workshop on "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels: Next Generation Hydrocarbon Biorefineries" which was the centerpiece of a Congressional Briefing on "Green Gasoline: An Alternative Alternate Fuel" for the R&D Caucus on October 4th, 2007.                                                                        (2) Learning Categories:                                                                             - Undergraduate Education and Undergraduate Student Research                                                                             - Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research                                                                             - Public Understanding of Science and Lifelong Learning This Nugget represents Transformative Research.  The transformational nature of this work is exceptionally high; a new paradigm for the catalytic production of hydrocarbon biofuels, in this case, green gasoline, can now being added to the existing renewable energy paradigm of corn and cellulosic ethanol production via enzymes. This Nugget represents Broadening Participation.  Professor Huber is working to recruit, mentor and support minority students in the engineering program by working with Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP), which supports efforts to recruit and mentor students from population groups underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Existing or potential Societal Benefits of this research:  This research precisely addresses the needs of the recently passed Energy Independence and security Act of 2007, which mandates increased production of renewable fuels at the same time as requiring increased gas mileage.  The production of hydrocarbon fuels from biomass accomplishes both goals.

Program Director:		John Regalbuto CBET Program Director - Catalysis and Biocatalysis
NSF Award Number:		0747996
Award Title:		CAREER: Selective Thermal Processing of Biomass-derived Oxygenates by Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis
PI Name:		George Huber
Institution Name:		University of Massachusetts Amherst
Program Element Code:		1401
NSF Investments:		- Climate Change - Human and Social Dynamics - Sensor Research - Environment (including the importance of fresh water and dynamics of water processes) - Understanding Complex Biological Systems (including the      interfaces of life, physical, and computational sciences)
CBET Nugget:		FY 2008

Top of Page This Nugget was Updated on 1 October 2009.