Green Gasoline

Famous for Volvos, meatballs, massages, lutefisk, smorgasbords, and blondes, you can add another Swedish contribution—green gasoline from trees.

One of the tasks of contractors is getting rid of the roots, twigs, and branches when clearing a plot. Just so much debris, right?

Are we making the best use of this material?

Not so fast. It could be the makings of green gasoline. Here’s why.

Chemical Engineering scientist Christian Hulteberg, from Sweden’s Lund University, has developed a polymer pulp byproduct from tree waste — the residue from pulp and paper manufacturing. It’s called lignin, and after it gets processed by purification and filtration, through the magic of chemistry, Voila! It’s turned into gasoline!

When is all this going to happen? Scientist Hulteberg already has a pilot plant in operation and hopes that by 2021 his tree waste gasoline will be available in service stations.

Instead of regular, mid-grade, and hi-test, Swedes can fill up with Pine, Oak, or Cedar. (Kidding.)

And unlike other biofuels, like those made from corn fed to livestock, tree waste gasoline is much better for the environment.

So in the future, when clearing a site, you might just be taking your wood chips to a refinery to be converted into fuel.

Your parents were wrong when they told you money doesn’t grow on trees because someday it just might.