Publication Summary

Organic Waste to Resources Research and Pilot Project Report. This project has identified a new pretreatment concept to enhance the production of sugars from the fast pyrolysis of wood and straw. It also proves, for the first time, that sugars recovered from pyrolysis can be easily converted into ethanol. These two results are important because they show that fast pyrolysis of wood or straw followed by bio-oil hydrotreatment can create green gasoline and green diesel (from the lignin fraction), as well as ethanol (from the cellulose fraction). These three common transportation fuels are of greater value than bunker fuel, which is the only fuel that can be currently replaced with pyrolytic oils. More investigations at the bench scale are needed to generate enough data for scale up of this technology and to evaluate its economic viability.

The Washington State Department of Ecology provided funding for this project through the Beyond Waste Organics Waste to Resources (OWR) project. These funds were provided in the 2007-2009 Washington State budget from the Waste Reduction Recycling and Litter Control Account. OWR project goals and objectives were developed by the Beyond Waste Organics team, and were approved by the Solid Waste and Financial Assistance Program. Funding was from the Waste Reduction Recycling and Litter Control Account. OWR project goals and objectives were developed by the Beyond Waste Organics team, and were approved by the Solid Waste and Financial Assistance Program.