Ethanol from Rice Husks
MEEM Group for Renewable Energy
The study of producing ethanol from rice husk (a kind of lignocellulosic biomass waste) is an important international research which aims at achieving sustainable development of human society.
Our group aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of ethanol production from rice husk by adopting a novel and green approach.
Key issues and problems
Fossil fuel shortage and severe environmental problems have caught great attention on the exploitation of clean renewable energies, which influences the world economy. It is proposed that fuels from biomass will be the only practical replacement of a substantial part of the fossil fuels in the next 50 years. One of the most important factors hindering the growth of bio-fuels is the availability and cost of raw biomass (e.g. food crops) needed for the production of renewable fuels. Therefore, study on the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass waste into higher value transportation fuels is a major topic of current international research which aims at achieving sustainable development in terms of energy, economy, and environmental strategy.
At present, a huge amount of lignocellulosic biomass waste such as rice husk is produced annually in the world (124 million tons) and China (51 million tons). They are favorable feedstock for bio-fuels production because of their proper physical properties and steady supply from rice plants. However, some critical problems in ethanol production from rice husks need to be resolved (how to increase the yield of glucose/ethanol produced from rice husk, performance/limiting factors of catalytic conversion process, etc) which are the aims of this proposed research.
Objectives
To develop a novel and green methodology for ethanol production from rice husk. A green approach is designed to reduce the use or generation of hazardous materials associated with the conversion process while recycling rice husk.
Possible outcomes
We aim to deliver a novel and green technology for ethanol production from rice husk. The results of this project can provide guidance for ethanol production from rice husk. Our group would help to provide some important information about the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to glucose or sorbitol or ethanol by a catalytic approach, which opens new opportunities for the use of abundant and inexpensive lignocelluloses as a feedstock to produce fuels and chemicals. We will obtain valuable insights from the results of this study, which will improve our understanding of the effects of pore structure and acidity of the catalyst on controlling conversion of cellulose to glucose or sorbitol, thereby improving our ability to enhance the conversion efficiency of ethanol from rice husk.
Last modified on 6 April, 2009