Green biomass processing to lower slurry viscosity and reduce biofuel cost
Sustainable fuels for industries that cannot be easily electrified, like aviation and marine, will be crucial to achieving a carbon neutral economy. This work pioneers two green processing pathways to produce a biomass feedstock that is far less viscous at higher solids loadings. This decrease in viscosity could significantly improve the profitability of producing fuels through slurry-based conversion processes like hydrothermal liquefaction or dilute acid pretreatment and bological conversion. Natural biological degradation of corn stover has been shown to lower slurry viscosity by a factor of three and torrefaction has been shown to produce slurries that are 150x less viscousmore »