George Huber's team uses farmers' waste or wood chips to make chemicals that are part of a $400 billion industry.
University of Massachusetts professor George W. Huber stands in one of his laboratories and points to where the wood products are inserted to produce petroleum-replacement chemicals when the process is finished.AMHERST - In several laboratories on the University of Massachusetts campus, George W. Huber and his team of researchers have been working on a process to make chemicals that have relied on petroleum to make.
But the work that Huber is engaged in uses renewable products such as farmers' waste or wood chips to make chemicals such as benzene, toluene, xylenes and olefins, chemicals that are used in plastic products of all kind and synthetics as well, chemicals that are a $400 billion industry, Huber said.
Huber, the Armstrong Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at UMass, has been able to modify the production to make it commercially viable.
Huber’s team’s findings were reported in Thursday’s issue of Science.
The breakthrough in the development came in the ability to produce the petrochemicals in a higher volume.
Huber said since there’s no change in the molecular structure, manufacturers who use the chemicals from petroleum will not have to change their manufacturing process.
“Everything is made from that is now green,” said David Sudolsky of New York City, who along with Huber co-founded Anellotech Corps. to bring this process to market. Sudolsky said the whole process happens in one reactor, which is a simple approach to the production of the chemicals.
Sudolsky said they are in the process of trying to raise $18 million for a demonstration facility to show the process and then in turn raise an additional $47 million for a commercial facility. They are talking with venture capital companies and looking for strategic partners.
Initially they had been looking to build the demonstration facility in Indian Orchard, but Huber said there were permitting issues there.
While there is nothing signed yet, they are looking at Schenectady N.Y., where they have secured permits.
Huber, who has garnered millions of dollars in research grants, said his “career goal is to develop the process to move this to the commercial scale.”
He said this will be great for the economy because instead of paying for foreign oil to produce the chemicals, money instead can be paid to farmers for waste products and to land owners for wood.
He said to make a dent in the current market, they will have to develop plants all across the country.
Sudolsky said “the market is huge,” and he said they will be able “to license the process all over the world.”
“I think it’s brilliant,” said Michael F. Malone, UMass vice chancellor for research and engagement. “It would unplug us from petroleum. It’s got enormous potential.”
Malone said that the university will benefit financially from licensing fees, but he also said the university’s mission is to use federal and state money to bring the technologies “into society and do something good with them.”
Huber said this is his third article published in Science, but his first while at the university. He said every researcher strives to have their work published there or in Nature.