Behind a successful conversion of biomass to a better biofuel or a new green chemical, there is a carefully chosen solvent. The right solvent not only dissolves biomass but also drives the efficiency of the entire conversion process, resulting in higher yields and a lower bottom line.

For researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the central role of solvents in converting non-food biomass to biofuels and bioproducts means they’re ripe for optimization. Better use of solvents could improve the economics of biorefineries, push a range of new and more sustainable biofuels and bioproducts to market, and provide new sources of revenue for farmers.

But the organic solvents used in biomass conversion are both critical to the process and a little mysterious. That is, scientists do not fundamentally understand “solvent effects”—or the role that solvents can play in changing reaction rates, reaction pathways, product distributions, or yields.