Scientists created a method to decompose plant materials and obtain ecological energy

The need for science to find pathways to products and fuels that are truly renewable is imperative, in the face of rising energy costs and the obvious effects of burning fossil fuels on the global climate.

Through the use of chemical tools, it was proven that it is possible to access renewable energy that “hides” plant matter in some of its components, thus opening the way to a new alternative that could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Green energy from some plant matter compounds

The consumption of fossil fuels, despite the state of climatic emergency under which the planet finds itself, continues to be very high. Ned Jackson, a professor of organic chemistry in the Michigan State University College of Natural Sciences. “All of our liquid fuels and almost all of our manufactured materials, from gasoline and gallons to countertops and clothes, start with oil: crude oil”commented the scientist.

Faced with the current context, it is necessary to develop the tools that allow a transition from fossil fuels to renewable carbon sources for all these elements present in daily life.

Jackson and his former graduate student Yuting Zhou, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois, developed a chemical method that allows electricity and water to break the strong chemical bonds in plant matter, also called biomass. This ‘electrocatalytic’ process could be applied to lignin, a carbon-rich component of biomass that is usually discarded or simply burned, as a by-product of papermaking. This new tool also has the potential to destroy environmental pollutants, expanding the amount of resources that are used in existing production processes.

To harness both the carbon and energy stored in biomass, with the stated purpose of replacing oil, new and efficient methods are needed to break down this complex, tough, low-energy material into building blocks for fuels and products. Specifically, tools are needed to disconnect the strong chemical bonds that hold them together, while retaining, and even enhancing, as much carbon and energy content as possible.

“One of the things that drives us is the idea that our main use of oil is the fuel that is burned to produce energy, adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere”Jackson said. “The new science is a step toward extracting useful carbon compounds to displace a fraction of the fossil oil we use today.”.

The model proposed by these scientists, recently published in Nature Communications, poses an interesting alternative to obtain new energy sources. The main researcher’s analysis points out with some concern that this option might not be enough for countries with a high consumption of fossil fuels, such as the United States, which accounts for a fifth of the world’s crude oil consumption. However, applied to another scale, this could be a solution that helps speed up the transition to clean energy.