The Wake

Many people dismiss the concept of biofuel as the energy source of the future as a radical, impractical notion. If recent developments from the award-winning Regents Professor Lanny Schmidt don’t change their minds, then nothing will. As Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota, Lanny Schmidt has made incredible progress in the journey towards the future of renewable energy.

In 2004, professor Schmidt discovered a way to produce hydrogen from ethanol, a revolutionary feat at the time. In the past year, he and his team have developed a process that converts soybean oil and sugar water into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The end result is syngas, which is an ingredient in synthetic diesel fuel. Once hydrogen is separated from biofuel, it is pushed through a fuel cell, which produces electricity.

The synthesis of hydrogen from ethanol has been a major advancement in its own right, but it is mind-blowing to think that soybean oil and sugar water are merely prototypes, and that theoretically this process could be repeated with almost any carbon-based biomass. This discovery throws open all sorts of doors for the practical mass development, distribution and use of biofuel. Using these new techniques, it is foreseeable that the production of biofuel may become decentralized on a massive scale, transforming into a domestic industry and revolutionizing the way we live. Professor Schmidt has contributed to the future in ways that are, as of yet, unimaginable.