Session: Advances in Renewable Energy and Fuels:

Dineen Vogler¹, Claire Martin¹, Barnabas Gikonyo¹
1. State University of New York Geneseo, Department of Chemistry

The Earth has endured years of damage caused by an overuse of fossil fuels. Many are combating the damage with alternative energy. Biofuels represent an economical and often overlooked alternative to fossil fuels. Efforts have been geared toward the use of human food sources such as sugarcane (first generation biofuel). Although first generation biofuels aid in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, they lead to increasing food prices which negatively impacts developing countries. This research focuses on the production of second generation biofuels which relies on non-human food sources, which exceed first generation biofuels in that they do not take away from a food source. This project specifically focuses on the use of rice husks as a biofuel feedstock. Second generation biofuels are also relatively inexpensive. The outermost layer that is separated from the rice grains during the milling process is usually thrown away as a waste product. Rice husks are ideal as a biofuel feedstock, because they're cheap if not free, and they have the power to curb greenhouse gas emissions. For this project, an ionic liquid (1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) was used for the pretreatment of the rice husks to yield glucose. Further experimentation can lead to glucose quantification methods of the samples including refractometry, and DNS analyses. From this, we can determine how efficient rice husks are as second generation biofuel.

Dineen M Vogler

SUNY Geneseo

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