NSF funds Auerbach’s research on biofuels
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $276,000 grant to Chemistry professor Scott Auerbach to study how nanotechnology can be used to produce renewable biofuels.
Auerbach's focus is on the development of new catalysts that produce fuels such as gasoline from sugars obtained from cellulosic biomass. A challenging step in this process is an "addition reaction," where two molecules join in the right way to form a precursor to gasoline. This is the opposite of the chemistry that is presently used in crude oil refinement, in which acidic catalysts are used to "crack" big molecules into smaller ones. With this in mind, Auerbach has proposed the study of petroleum refinement catalysts (zeolites) suitably modified to make them basic, not acidic, so they will be effective in promoting addition reactions.
Zeolites are nanoporous solids, so the project involves an interesting nexus between chemistry, nanotechnology and energy research. Auerbach will apply the methods of "theoretical chemistry" to design useful catalytic materials on the computer.
The funding from NSF’s Engineering Directorate will be used to support graduate students and to upgrade computational facilities.
Chemical Engineering professors Curt Conner and George Huber will take the predictions of Auerbach's calculations to fabricate and test new biofuel production catalysts. The team is part of a new energy initiative on campus called Massachusetts Center for Renewable Energy Science and Technology or Mass-CREST.
November 7, 2006.
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