Bifunctional Heterogeneous Enzyme-Mimetic Catalysts for Biofuel Refining

The increased utilization of abundant domestic and renewable biofeedstocks as fuels would contribute substantially to reducing the need for imported oil. Renewable fuels have emerged as attractive alternatives to their petroleum based counterparts, offering several environmental benefits. Despite these benefits, the high cost of biofuels ¿ as a result of several energy intensive production steps ¿ remains a major hurdle for their widespread use and commercialization. In order to address this problem, advanced cost- and energy-effective technologies are required to facilitate the conversion of biological feedstock materials into fuels. Therefore, this project will develop bifunctional, enzyme-mimetic heterogeneous catalysts for the transformation of biological feedstocks into high-performance fuels. Phase I will demonstrate that these catalysts offer high efficiency, low-cost, and environmentally sound conversion performance for a wide range of unrefined feedstock materials. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: In addition to providing cost-efficient biofuel production, bifunctional catalysts should be applicable to a wide array of chemical transformations in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.