Scientists Attempt to Replace Crude Oil With Sugars

amigoro writes with a link to the Press Esc blog, discussing a possible replacement for crude oil in plastics, fuels, and other industrial uses. The post outlines findings to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Science. Essentially, researchers at the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis are attempting to process the sugars in plant matter into an oil-like compound, a daunting challenge. "Glucose, in plant starch and cellulose, is nature's most abundant sugar. 'But getting a commercially viable yield of HMF from glucose has been very challenging,' Zhang said. 'In addition to low yield until now, we always generate many different byproducts,' including levulinic acid, making product purification expensive and uncompetitive with petroleum-based chemicals. Zhang, lead author and former post doc Haibo Zhao, and colleagues John Holladay and Heather Brown, all from PNNL, were able to coax HMF yields upward of 70 percent from glucose and nearly 90 percent from fructose while leaving only traces of acid impurities."

Comments

Plants that grow plastic...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Plants that grow plastic... http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/459126.stm

Re:How about this:

[GreyPoopon]

How do they not get this yet, you burn stuff you produce CO2. I don't care what you burn, CO2 is given off.

Uh, begging your pardon, but that's simply not true. CO2 is only produce by burning things that contain carbon. Burning hydrogen, for example, produces water.

Re:here's a thought

[GeckoX]

Flamebait? I think the mods are the ones smoking the stuff, sheesh. Someone revoke that moderators privileges, total abuse there.

Poster was actually completely on topic...though obviously too stoned to remember to provide any reasonable details. Maybe they'll fill in the blanks when they come down ;)

Links:
http://www.hempplastic.com/
http://www.treehugger.com/

http://www.hempmuseum.org/

Just for starters.

Re:That big of a deal?

[cyclopropene]

TBH I'm more worried about running out of copper and silicon. I can understand copper, but why are you worried about running out of silicon? It makes up something like 25% of mass of the earths crust.