Photocatalytic valorization of forest residue biomass to value-added organic products

Forest residue biomass presents an excellent opportunity to produce valuable organic molecules such as HMF and formic acid from the lignocellulosic constituents that make up the vast majority of woody residues. Removal of these residues helps to promote forest health by reducing the amount of tinder that can cause fires to burn out of control and consume more forest than necessary for the health of the ecosystem. These biomass residues can also be transformed into biofuel platform molecules, creating a revenue stream from waste. SkyVision proposes ahybrid semiconductor light-harvesting material that can be combined with a Ni-based molecular catalyst to simultaneously produce hydrogen gas and convert forest residues into valuable organic products including HMF and formic acid.Directly related to this solicitation, the proposed technology involves the use of semiconductornanoparticles as a light harvesting material that are enhanced to absorb a larger range of solar irradiation, increasing the overall efficiency of the system. In addition, the nanoparticle technology proposed is targeted to produce value-added biofuel molecules. These factors, as well as literature precedent for various components of the proposed system, indicate that this technology will serve to help meet the long-term goals of this program. In addition, methods for processing forest residues will be studied to increase access to the lignocellulosic nature of the material. This information will be fundamentally valuable to all future valorization studies in the entire field and serve to drive all progress to increased utilization and valorization of forest residue biomass.