Unlocking new energy possibilities with dead wood

Could dead wood be the answer to the world's energy problems? Scientists at the University of Maine have invented a simple two-step way to turn wood and even garbage into fuel, that could power your car and heat your home.

Reuters video story:

http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/10/18/unlocking-new-energy-possibilities-with?videoId=223643584

( Youtube version of above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEaICNVgpMY )

Additional video and story on the process:

http://energydeals.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/turning-wood-into-oil-in-two-simple-steps/

And so don't lead to practical commercial implementations.

I'm interested to see what comes out of the research and will post any updated information I find.

The "waste" that they want to convert to fuel isn't waste but biomass vital to maintaining soil fertility.

Hydrolysis of cellulose (with aqueous sulfuric acid) should produce glucose, the monomer from which cellulose is formed. This has been done on an industrial scale before (the Soviets used it in WWII).

Heating over calcium hydroxide "removes oxygen"? How? This is a base, not a reducing agent. If oxygen is being lost, it has to be as water or CO2. It's known that base can cause carbohydrates to rearrange to form carboxylates, which can fragment with loss of CO2 and H2O simultaneously. Lots of small carbonyl compounds are conceivable as products, but not hydrocarbons.

I think there's something missing in the description. Probably those "hydrocarbons" aren't really hydrocarbons, but something else good as fuel.

On the down side, they mention the sulfuric acid is neutralized before recovering the product, and calcium hydroxide would absorb CO2, forming calcium carbonate. So two relatively reactive substances (which require energy to create) are destroyed to produce a fuel. This is a big no-no for any process that's supposed to be harvesting energy, not consuming it. Not impossible that something will come of this, but skepticism is appropriate.