Chinese female students discover oil substitutes from crop straws

[Brotherhood]

Chinese female students discover oil substitutes from crop straws - People's Daily Online November 18, 2010

Two female doctoral students from Nanjing University of Technology recently announced that they have discovered oil substitutes from low-cost plants, such as crop straws, dried sweet potato and sugar cane. If their achievements can be utilized in industrial production, it will likely ease the world's excessive reliance on oil.

Li Heng and Sun Peng, two female doctoral students at Nanjing University of Technology, have used biological materials to produce two types of chemical raw materials that are widely used in the medical, food, daily chemical, water soluble paint and paper-making sectors. Their technological achievements have already been reported on and highly praised by international authoritative magazines.

Through numerous experiments, the two students finally used sorbic alcohol and lactic acid that can be made from low-cost biological materials including crop straws as the base materials to produce the widely-used chemical anhydro sorbitol and acrylic acid.

They not only discovered the two base materials with high cost performance, but also used their independently-innovated catalysts during the process to transform the base materials into chemical raw materials and enhance the transformation ratio.

China Youth Daily contributed to this report.

By People's Daily Online

 

[Ganguly]

If it is true, India & Pakistan will be rich soon. We are one of the largest producers of sugercane.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Is biofuels really that bright an idea?

 

[no_name]

Nope, It might make oil company not give up. And it will take food away from needed purpose. Deforestation of natural trees. People's needs could never be satisfied.

I suggest we make a clean transition to non-food non-plant based clean energy.

 

[below_freezing]

Biofuels are thermodynamically impossible and a complete waste of research money. Advanced fuel cells, batteries, and nuclear power to charge them is the way to go. Bio is the future, but it was supposedly the future 10 years ago too.

They're not doing biofuels though. They're doing petroleum feedstock substitutions.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Well the only use for biofuel, I think, is substitute for jet fuel when we run out of fossil fuel.

 

[oct605032048]

Why to specifically stress the discovers's gender? Women have equal opportunity in academia in China.

 

[Chogy]

Well the only use for biofuel, I think, is substitute for jet fuel when we run out of fossil fuel.

Coal can produce a superb jet fuel, and the world's supply of coal is titanic.

Biofuels are a joke, IMO. The U.S. is on this huge ethanol binge, and the sad reality is that the petroleum used to grow and harvest corn and such is more than the energy yield from the ethanol.

Algae might be the only realistic biofuel, as large algae mats can be considered solar energy collector panels, in a twisted way.

This takes nothing from the efforts of the students. Anything that promotes science is good, even if the breakthrough isn't as comprehensive as everyone thinks.

 

[CardSharp]

Coal can produce a superb jet fuel, and the world's supply of coal is titanic.

Biofuels are a joke, IMO. The U.S. is on this huge ethanol binge, and the sad reality is that the petroleum used to grow and harvest corn and such is more than the energy yield from the ethanol.

Algae might be the only realistic biofuel, as large algae mats can be considered solar energy collector panels, in a twisted way.

This takes nothing from the efforts of the students. Anything that promotes science is good, even if the breakthrough isn't as comprehensive as everyone thinks.

I agree. The hype is largely as a result of the corn lobby, the US government subsidizes ethanol fuel from corn to the tune of a dollar a gallon while it slaps a 50 cent a gallon tariff on Brazilian sugar based ethanol fuel.

 

[Chogy]

I agree. The hype is largely as a result of the corn lobby, the US government subsidizes ethanol fuel from corn to the tune of a dollar a gallon while it slaps a 50 cent a gallon tariff on Brazilian sugar based ethanol fuel.

But wouldn't you agree that regardless of the source, biofuels make no sense from an energy/thermodynamic point of view?

 

[CardSharp]

But wouldn't you agree that regardless of the source, biofuels make no sense from an energy/thermodynamic point of view?

More or less (I never disagreed with you on that point either) though some processes are slightly positive in energy balance and some slightly negative.

Nothing compares to petroleum which takes only 1/50th of the energy to get it as it contains.

 

[below_freezing]

coal is the way to go until the technology matures for electric propulsion, at which point it becomes better to just switch to nuclear and solar.

coal can be liquefied into petroleum-like substances and burned with minimal disruption of existing infrastructure. though unrenewable the supply is huge, enough for 200 years.

again though they're not trying to build a biofuel, just feedstock replacements.

 

[Chogy]

Nothing compares to petroleum which takes only 1/50th of the energy to get it as it contains.

Which is why mankind will pump oil like gophers on crack until we run out. It's a $$ thing.

Have you ever heard of the Abiogenic theory of oil? I find it fascinating and plausible, while the bulk of science rejects it.

Abiogenic Oil

Basically, it says that crude oil is a geologic product rather than a fossil product. Our own solar system has moons and such that are packed with hydrocarbons, like Titan's atmosphere. Methane and Ethane in abundance, basically natural gas. No dinosaurs there, it existed from the beginning. Connect 4 ethane molecules together (heat + pressure) = Octane, pure gasoline. Connect more = Kerosene and heavier fractions.

 

[CardSharp]

Which is why mankind will pump oil like gophers on crack until we run out. It's a $$ thing.

Have you ever heard of the Abiogenic theory of oil? I find it fascinating and plausible, while the bulk of science rejects it.

Abiogenic Oil

Basically, it says that crude oil is a geologic product rather than a fossil product. Our own solar system has moons and such that are packed with hydrocarbons, like Titan's atmosphere. Methane and Ethane in abundance, basically natural gas. No dinosaurs there, it existed from the beginning. Connect 4 ethane molecules together (heat + pressure) = Octane, pure gasoline. Connect more = Kerosene and heavier fractions.

Possible but the biogenic theory of oil makes sense to me (am taking a geology course right now for sh1ts and giggles).

There are chemical processes for making longer chained hydrocarbons just from heat and pressure but the coincidence of oil with rocks associated with old oceans occurs too often to be purely by chance.

Basically ancient ocean bottoms is where you find most of the oil.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Coal can produce a superb jet fuel, and the world's supply of coal is titanic.

Biofuels are a joke, IMO. The U.S. is on this huge ethanol binge, and the sad reality is that the petroleum used to grow and harvest corn and such is more than the energy yield from the ethanol.

Algae might be the only realistic biofuel, as large algae mats can be considered solar energy collector panels, in a twisted way.

This takes nothing from the efforts of the students. Anything that promotes science is good, even if the breakthrough isn't as comprehensive as everyone thinks.

Algae may become the main source of food in time to come.