An Alternative to E85?

The September '07 issue of Scientific American arrived in our mailbox yesterday. And in it was an update regarding ethanol that caught our eye. It's about a biofuel called 2,5-dimethylfuran - or DMF for short. It seems that DMF is manufactured by taking glucose or fructose and adding acids. The part that has researchers excited is that the resulting fuel contains 40 percent more energy than ethanol, bringing it in line with gasoline. Another plus is that DMF does not absorb water from the air like ethanol. And the methods used to make DMF are less complex and more efficient than the current fermentation used to make ethanol.

But there is a fly in the ointment ... it seems that one of the compounds that forms in the DMF reaction has been problematic in reacting with some of the sugars before the acid does its stuff. Stay tuned for more since researchers and chemical engineers are currently evaluating the intricacies of the catalytic reactions and methods of processing this newest alt fuel.

photo courtesy flickr - © wasoxygen