A new technique could allow plant matter to be turned into a gasoline-like fuel, opening up the possibility of bio-fuels beyond diesel substitutes.

“There are lots of processes to make linear hydrocarbons, but until now nobody has been able to make branched hydrocarbons with volatility in the gasoline range,” said Mark Mascal, professor of chemistry at the University of California and lead author of a new paper.

Diesel fuel is made up of long, straight chains of carbon atoms, while the molecules that make up gasoline are shorter and branched. That means the two evaporate at different temperatures and pressures, leading to different designs for diesel and gasoline engines.

While biodiesel refined from plant oils has already been used to run modified diesel engines, a plant-based gasoline replacement would open up a much bigger market for renewable fuel.

The feedstock for the new process is levulinic acid; a cheap, common and practical starting point that can be produced from raw biomass with high yield.

“Essentially it could be any cellulosic material,” Mascal says.

This is because the process does not rely on fermentation, and the cellulose does not have to be converted to sugar-form first.

The University of California research have kept the lid on the specifics of their new development, as they have filed a range of provisional patents to protect it.

The published report states that the process involves “concurrent hydrolysis, dehydration, and chlorine substitution reactions coupled with continuous extraction”, more information is accessible here.