Scientists have created fuel from wood and plant material.

Here is a cool story I just found and thought I would share...

Aparently, fuel as well as natural vanilla extract can be produced from wood mulch and plant waste.

pbs story

From the story:

Mahdi Abu-Omar’s high-octane fuel and artificial vanilla flavoring share one thing in common: they both were developed from wastewood.

Leading a team of researchers at Purdue University, Abu-Omar, a chemist and chemical engineer, recently developed a new method of catalytic conversion to turn lignin, which makes up a plant’s cell walls and serves as support beams that hold the plant upright and carry its water, into products that can either fuel your car or flavor your cupcake.

Before this innovation, Abu-Omar said lignin’s only value was that this resulting biomass could be burned for heat as a byproduct of processing ethanol from cellulose.
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Pretty cool concept, this would make a great option for piles of yard waste from peoples houses.
I wonder what the required energy is to produce? Hopefully nothing like ethanol.

Somebody should have told them about the log and dried twigs, think the cavemen beat them to that discovery.

Great. Another "reason" to cut down trees.

a reply to: Mandroid7

Cool so gasoline and vanilla extract can be made from mulch or any trash wood, but it seems the paper industry alreadystrips out the necessary chemical in its process which makes it useless.

The solution: Paper industry needs to switch to hemp and the lumber industry that would have lost out because of it can now be part of making car fuel.

Everyone wins.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

Lol, right?
Baby steps, baby steps.
I'm hoping this effects the gas prices.
I've got fam in the tree business, and the wheels are turning on this one!

originally posted by: NthOther
Great. Another "reason" to cut down trees.

Man, I sure hope not. Hopefully the giant piles of lawn refuse at the landfills could disappear though.

originally posted by: Grimpachi
a reply to: Mandroid7

Cool so gasoline and vanilla extract can be made from mulch or any trash wood, but it seems the paper industry alreadystrips out the necessary chemical in its process which makes it useless.

The solution: Paper industry needs to switch to hemp and the lumber industry that would have lost out because of it can now be part of making car fuel.

Everyone wins.

I will see you one paper company, and raise you one tobacco company for the "hemp" switch

I think the biggest advantage may be given to the beavers.

a reply to: Mandroid7

Lignin for vanilla flavoring isn't something new though the article makes it seem like he discovered this. It seems that he found a better way of processing it.

a reply to: Mandroid7

An old alcoholics trick is to carry around a bottle of pure vanilla extract, it has an alcohol content of about 60%+ and it doesn't give off the alcohol smell as well. It gives them a quick boost in need of the booze. They teach police officers to pick up on this on road side stops.

Also, a guy at my work was caught doing this a few weeks ago.
So yea, I can see it being a fuel.
But in all honesty, isn't oil, coal, and just all organic materials that are concentrated enough a fuel?

originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: Mandroid7

An old alcoholics trick is to carry around a bottle of pure vanilla extract, it has an alcohol content of about 60%+ and it doesn't give off the alcohol smell as well. It gives them a quick boost in need of the booze. They teach police officers to pick up on this on road side stops.

Also, a guy at my work was caught doing this a few weeks ago.
So yea, I can see it being a fuel.
But in all honesty, isn't oil, coal, and just all organic materials that are concentrated enough a fuel?

Oh man, just what I need, another way to get drunk

I get what your saying about the organics, but this may be a way to get rid of otherwise waste only materials without using up natural resources. That would be pretty neat in itself.

I am more interested in the process. Is it better than other extraction methods? Is less energy used to produce it than say using 100 gallons of fuel to harvest corn, then haul it, then heat it? To get a gallon of fuel, or whatever the exact negative math on ethanol production is.

a reply to: strongfp

An old alcoholics trick is to carry around a bottle of pure vanilla extract, it has an alcohol content of about 60%+

Really , i did not know that . Does this carry over into products that use vanilla .

a reply to: Grimpachi

The solution: Paper industry needs to switch to hemp and the lumber industry that would have lost out because of it can now be part of making car fuel.

Everyone wins.

And where would you grow those MASSIVE amounts of hemp, it would take insane amount of plants and space to switch from tree's to hemp, that space isn't there, unless you clear more forest for hemp fields, but that carries to much irony..

originally posted by: Mianeye
a reply to: Grimpachi

The solution: Paper industry needs to switch to hemp and the lumber industry that would have lost out because of it can now be part of making car fuel.

Everyone wins.

And where would you grow those MASSIVE amounts of hemp, it would take insane amount of plants and space to switch from tree's to hemp, that space isn't there, unless you clear more forest for hemp fields, but that carries to much irony..

indoor growers already solved that, methinks?
y'know aqua/hydroponics vertical gardening ?


re the vanilla extract, DON'T!
the bottles i've seen and took a few ["that is 8"] sips from said 90%

went to sleep with a nice vanilla aftertaste woke up a couple of hours later
somebody must of slipped into the room put a catheter up my nose and pumped a gallon of molten lava into my skull
i could feel every wrinkle and lobe of my brain on fire.
was quite the alky in my college days and abruptly stopped after my second blackout [which lasted 18 hrs], 20 years without a drop, so it's not that i didn't have any tolerance...

tee, hee since alcohol is legal the mods shouldn't be fussy regarding the tale

a reply to: AdamuBureido

indoor growers already solved that, methinks?
y'know aqua/hydroponics vertical gardening ?

i don't think you realize how much hemp needs to be grown to substitute for wood....

a reply to: Mianeye

it was doing just fine up until it was made illegal by bought and paid for politicians.

unless you're factoring in its use as car fuel, then you'd be right

Fuel from wood, I can just see it now...

Pinterest adding yet another wonder thing to make from used pallets!

Yeah, tried that in WWII. Wasn't very efficient. I hope they upped that low efficiency, a lot.

Photos: Google.images


For example.

a reply to: ManFromEurope

If I remember well, these "things" produced lots of Carbon monoxide. This stuff bind very fast to hemoglobin but take "some time" to remove itself...

a reply to: Mandroid7

I manufactured a drink from rainwater earlier today, but need a couple of million pounds for further research. The idea's a winner though... anyone?