Inside the University of Alberta Research Laboratory: Biorefining Oils and Fats to Hydrocarbon Fuels

Introduction

"It's not just me. It's an entire team of people, industry supports, funders, it's really the grad students that have driven a lot of this." - Dr. David Bressler, University of Alberta

Dr. David Bressler and the team at University of Alberta have one large research goal: developing a technology that can convert oils and fats directly to hydrocarbon fuels. During their research process, the transesterification did make biodiesel that was compatible with hydrocarbons, yet wasn't a hydrocarbon itself. They moved onto the second generation of biofuels: using high temperature, free radical chemistry to directly convert oils and fats into hydrocarbon fuels. Discover more about the renewable energy research at University of Alberta in the video below.