In search of fuel’s holy grail

OTTAWA — Biochemist Kendall Pye has devoted his long career to the modern equivalent of the alchemist’s dream: a commercially viable process for transforming forest wastes into cellulosic ethanol that could replace gasoline.

It was during the energy crisis of the 1970s that Dr. Pye and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania developed a process for pretreating wood to separate the cellulose, which is used to make ethanol, from the lignin, the substance that binds the fibres together and can be used for a host of other products.


But fears of crude oil rising to $80 (U.S.) a barrel gave way to two decades of relatively low oil prices, and the technology was instead adopted by the forestry industry to make pulp for paper.

Now, with high oil prices and environmental concerns again driving a search for alternative fuels, Dr. Pye, 69, is back in the lab, pursuing the keys to profitable cellulosic ethanol as the chief scientific officer at Lignol Energy Corp., a Vancouver-based company he co-founded several years ago.

Globe and Mail