Texas Agriculture Daily News
Researchers work to create usable oil from hazardous waste
Friday, January 11, 2013
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Scientists in Texas are working to transform large amounts of hazardous waste into usable oil.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Research project received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study a way to engineer a microbe that could potentially break lignin into a lipid that can be used to make fuel.
Dr. Joshua Yuan, plant pathologist and lead researcher on the project, says it could help solve the challenge of biowaste that is generated in biofuel production.
“Probably one of the most important challenges a biomass refinery faces today is how to use lignin,” Yuan said. “We need a profitable way to use it.”
According to a report from the AgriLife Research office, the project is expected to result in a way to convert at least 40 percent of processed lignin. Yuan said it will also provide another major type of feedstock for biodiesel production and will result in the mitigation of more than 20 million tons of carbon dioxide.
At this time, researchers on the project do not have an estimated date for when the research will yield marketable results.
For more information, visit today.agrilife.org.
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