Rapid, cheap biofuel process touted

Green gasoline as cheap as $1 (50p) a gallon could be on its way following a biofuel research breakthrough at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Scientist led by George W Huber created a procedure which extracts hydrocarbons from wood, grass and plant matter by heating and cooling them rapidly.

The single-step process creates a liquid that is identical to gasoline, the research team reported in Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials.

Feedstock is rapidly heated to between 750 and 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit then quickly cooled, with a catalyst added to the material. Within 60 seconds, the process created the liquid with many of the compounds present in gasoline.

"We’ve proven this method on a small scale in the lab," Huber told college paper The Republican. "But we need to make further improvements and prove it on a large scale before it’s going to be economically viable."

The National Science Foundation has awarded the team a $400,000 grant, which the team will combine with a $30,000 grant from the UMass Office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property do develop the process and take it to market.

John Regalbuto, director of Catalysis and Biocatalysis at the National Science Foundation, said: "In theory, (the UMass biofuel) requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce."

He added: "In fact, from the extra heat that will be released, you can generate electricity in addition to the biofuel. There will not be just a small carbon footprint for the process. By recovering heat and generating electricity, there won’t be any footprint."