There are several ways to produce plant-based bio fuels, but some of the methods result in bio fuels that are harmful to health as well as nature.
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Solvejg Jorgensen has shown that various production methods can be tested on the computer.
This promises cheaper, faster and above all safer development of alternatives to fossil fuel.
Among other things the calculations of the computer chemist show that bio fuels produced by the wrong synthesis path will decompose to compounds such as health hazardous smog, carcinogenic particles and toxic formaldehyde.
"There is an almost infinite number of different ways to get to these fuels. We can show the least hazardous avenues to follow and we can do that with a series of calculations that take only days," explained Jorgensen.
Jorgensen was astonished to learn from her calculations that there is a huge difference in toxicity depending on how the molecules were assembled during production.
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Accounts of her new computational prediction tool are published in acclaimed scientific periodical The Journal of Physical Chemistry A.
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