Plant Sugars Could Replace Ethanol in Biofuel

Global oil, gas and energy giant Shell has joined forces with US-based biofuels company Virent Energy Systems to research and develop the use of plant sugars to replace ethanol in gasoline.

Shell says the collaboration could herald the availability of new biofuels that can be used at high blend rates in standard gasoline engines.

The research will use Virent's BioForming platform technology which uses catalysts to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules to replace sugars that have been fermented into ethanol and distilled.

The sugars can be from non-food sources like corn stover, switchgrass, wheat straw and sugarcane pulp, in addition to conventional biofuel feedstock like wheat, corn and sugarcane.

The new biogasoline molecules have higher energy content than ethanol or butanol and deliver better fuel efficiency, which can also be blended to make conventional gasoline, says Shell.

Shell hopes to accelerate commercialisation of the biogasoline technology, which it says could potentially eliminate the need for specialised infrastructure, new engine designs and blending equipment.

By Ozge Ibrahim