Shell, Virent to develop biogasoline fuel

26 March 2008 17:27  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Shell has teamed up with US biofuels company Virent to develop biogasoline fuel and blend components directly from plant sugars, rather than fermenting sugars into ethanol, the companies said on Wednesday.

 

The new biogasoline molecules would have better fuel efficiency than ethanol and may eliminate the need for specialised infrastructure, new engine designs and blending equipment, thus overcoming major barriers to the widespread adoption of biofuels, they said.

 

The sugars for the biogasoline could be sourced from non-food sources like corn stover, switch grass, wheat straw and sugarcane pulp, in addition to conventional biofuel feedstock like wheat, corn and sugarcane, they said.

 

“Virent has proven that sugars can be converted into the same hydrocarbon mixtures of today’s gasoline blends,” said Virent vice president Randy Cortright.

 

The company’s catalytic process used a variety of biomass-derived feedstocks to generate biogasoline at competitive costs, he said.

 

“Our results to date fully justify accelerating commercialisation of this technology.”

 

The companies did not disclose investment sums, production targets or timelines.

 

Shell is also a stakeholder in Canadian cellulosic ethanol firm Iogen which plans to set up a commercial-scale bio-refinery in the country’s Saskatchewan province.

 

Bookmark Simon Robinson's Big Biofuels Blog  for some independent thinking on biofuels

By: Stefan Baumgarten
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