Background: Whether we are past right on top of or heading towards peak oil production we are experiencing a consistent increase in demand for renewable energy sources as our dependence on oil becomes more prominent. There is much need for biofuel as a renewable source of energy as it has positive sustainability factors. Shell ExxonMobil and British Petroleum have made substantial investments in algal biofuel production. Any amount of fuel produced would be easily consumed by the market. Current methods of biofuel production utilize crops that could otherwise be used for agriculture.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) constitute a large family of microporous solids exhibiting high surface areas tunable pore dimensions and adjustable surface functionality. With these attributes MOF performance is beginning to rival traditional solid adsorbents such as zeolites and activated carbons for some key gas-storage and molecular-separation applications. With regard to the latter the possibility of creating pore characteristics that cannot readily be achieved in zeolites or carbons expands the opportunities for molecular recognition.

The primary synthesis product is methanol an alcohol with chemical and physical properties that are nearly identical to ethanol. The means to synthesize carbon-neutral fuels is designed to be self-contained easily transportable and may be operated at existing sites that emit carbon dioxide (e.g. fermentation plants) and/or sites with abundant (renewable) low cost electricity which may be used to disassociate water in order to obtain the requisite hydrogen. The plant consumes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or carbon dioxide destined to be emitted into the atmosphere (e.g.

Technology Overview: Biodiesel a mixture of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) is traditionally produced from the base-catalyzed transesterification of triglycerides in vegetable oil with methanol but suffers from the high cost of vegetable oil. Low cost waste grease is an attractive feedstock but due to the high free fatty acid (FFA) content (>15 wt%) grease cannot be converted into biodiesel via base-catalysis.