Knock on wood: turning biomass into fuel

Making a global impact on climate change isn’t easy. Reducing emissions on a global scale requires multiple solutions, and we believe biofuels can play a big part. 

That’s why we’ve been working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop technologies that could have a global impact. As part of this collaboration, NREL and ExxonMobil scientists and engineers are testing the potential for converting wood waste to bio-oil. If successful, this oil would have the potential to be upgraded into a biofuel we could use in the cars and trucks we drive every day.

NREL is a world leader in biomass conversion, and we have a long history of moving technologies  from the lab to commercial use, including lower-emission fuels. We’re combining our strengths in hopes of developing a solution faster than either of us could do alone.

So far, we’ve successfully completed small, experimental tests, and the next phase is to move to a pilot demonstration soon. The goal of the pilot is to prove the concept works and provide more data to one day move to the commercial phase, and potentially transform transportation. 

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