Catalytic production of hydrocarbons from biomass

Conversion of biomass into useful fungible chemicals and fuels is a long standing challenge. A key requirement of such processes is high efficiency of conversion for economic viability. Biomass derived sugars are highly oxygenated and need processing to remove to be converted into useful hydrocarbons.We propose an integrated bio-thermochemical platform for production of a hydrocarbon which can be used for production of performance polymers as well as directly blended into existing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel upon simple and cheap chemical transformation. The key component proposed to be developed under the grant envisages reactions to remove oxygen and transform a bio-derived oxy-intermediate into a hydrocarbon with high specificity. Upon full development, our process can produce the same chemical at half the current market price that too from renewable sources.