Functionalized Organosulfonic Acid Catalyzed  Hydrolysis of Cellulosic Biomass for Biofuel Applications

 

2024-2025 USDA-NIFA Limited Competitive Research Support Award

 

Principal Investigators and affiliations:

PI: Dr. Ananda Amarasekara, Prairie View A&M University 

Graduate Student: Jesse Nwanko

Funded: $42,000

Start Date: 10/1/2024

End Date: 6/30/2025

 

Project Goal

The project aims at engineering a recyclable cellulase mimic type catalyst operating around 160- 170 °C for processing energy crops and agricultural wastes to fuels/feedstock chemicals without an energy intensive pretreatments at 220 °C.

 

Objectives

1. Development of a simple, cellulase mimicking catalyst for hydrolysis of cellulose to sugars.
2. Study the catalysis mechanism of new cellulose binding catalysts.
3. Applications in cellulose hydrolysis using untreated soft biomass like switch grass, corn stover and miscanthus.

 

Expected Project Outcomes

Development of a technology that will save energy and reactor vessel costs as it requires a 50-60 °C lower temperature than pretreatment-cellulase process or aqueous H2SO4 process and will save catalyst costs by recycling functionalized sulfonic acid, making an economically viable process compared to currently available technologies.