Root and branch reform: Swedish scientist makes fuel from tree waste

[January 24, 2019]    LUND, Sweden (Reuters) - Might tree roots, twigs and branches one day be used to power cars? That's what a Swedish researcher is hoping after developing a pulp byproduct that - on a modest scale - does just that.

Chemical engineering scientist Christian Hulteberg, from Lund University, has used the black liquor residue from pulp and paper manufacturing to create a polymer called lignin.

After purification and filtration, that is then turned into a gasoline mixture.

"We're actually using the stuff of the wood that they don't use when they make paper and pulp... It adds value to low-value components of the tree," he told Reuters.

In environmental terms, he says that gives it an advantage over other biofuels such as ethanol. "A lot of the controversy with ethanol production has been the use of feedstock that you can actually eat," he said.

Hulteberg has a pilot plant in operation and hopes the forest fuel will be available in service stations by 2021.

Though it will only serve a fraction of the demands of Swedish motorists, he is hopeful that, along with other renewable products under development, it could help wean us off our addiction to fossil fuels.

(Reporting by Jim Drury; additional reporting by Ella Wilks-Harper; Writing by John Stonestreet)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.