Back to the gr...ad school

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Jobhunting with a Master's sucks, so I've decided to go back and get the next degree. I'm back at UofO, and I'm working with...Dr. Who.

Tom Baker.

Oh, not *the* Tom Baker, but *a* Tom Baker. My research project involves finding a way to turn trees into gasoline, and possibly transform Big Oil into Big Wood.

*pause*

I believe I phrased that indelicately.

[danieldoof]

Oh making gasoline out of trees?
We can work together on that one

What is the next degree then? There is Bachelor, Master.... will it be the Doctor now?

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by Sa'ar Chasm

My research project involves finding a way to turn trees into gasoline, and possibly transform Big Oil into Big Wood.

*pause*

I believe I phrased that indelicately.

Perhaps.

The term "furanics" suddenly comes to mind. I saw an article recently about someone having worked out a process for converting cellulose into fuel which cuts out a lot of the tedium and expense of breaking cellulose molecules down into hydrocarbon molecules. I believe the resulting substance was then mixed with ethanol. (One criticism I saw was that this method would require more land area than we currently have available to produce enough cellulose for the process to be viable as a replacement for petroleum-derived fuels. Heigh-ho.)

So... does this Tom Baker have the long scarf?


[EDIT: this is not the same article I saw, but I believe it's about the same process.

http://www.tcetoday.com/tcetoday/New...aspx?nid=10759 ]

[Chancellor Valium]

Soon you will be Dr. Chasm, then? Damn, can't make a joke out of that.

Oh, well. Good luck, and avoid people who seem vague on things like licenses.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

I've seen an article on furan catalysis. It's in my pile of papers somewhere. It looks nice, but my way is better (well, maybe. I haven't actually done anything yet since most of my glassware is still on a truck somewhere).

Instead of using just the cellulose in the tree, this method will work on hemicellulose and lignin as well, so a greater percentage of the tree will end up in the gas tank.

Chemists tend to think on the benchtop scale, so I don't know anything about how much land will be required, but there are many, many waste streams that are just begging to be turned into something useful: agricultural waste, sawmill waste, household lawn clippings, garbage, unrecyclable paper, etc, etc, etc. I think the next major technological revolution will be resource extraction from waste products.

And no, Tom Baker wears no scarf, although I did put up a picture of him and the other Tom Baker on the lab door, with the caption "This lab belongs to WHO", deliberately leaving off the question mark.

Soon you will be Dr. Chasm, then? Damn, can't make a joke out of that.

Maybe, kinda, hopefully mid-to-long-term soonish. I need to pass comprehensive exams, and I'm apprehensive about that. Comprehensively apprehensive.

[mudshark]

Well, good luck, and be sure to keep us posted on how all that works out. I'd be interested in reading more about the process and, since I know that some large-ish rubbish and waste collection companies down this way have been for several years already dabbling in finding profitable ways to make use of the organic stuff they handle, I think you could be right about resource extraction of that sort being an interesting thing on which to be working in the next few years.