With expertise in engineering and paper science, Dr Steven Loffler leads a project on the production of biofuels from paper, timber and crop wastes.
Dr Loffler is a senior research scientist with CSIRO.
In addition to the biofuels project, his research covers:
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development and application of paper coating for enhancing print quality
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measurement of print quality for flexographic and ink jet printing
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paper formation
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measurement and modelling of liquid penetration into porous media.
Dr Loffler’s biofuels project, Lignocellulose to biocrude, is an initiative of CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship.
“Our process creates a stable oil that can then be tankered to the biorefinery.”
Dr Steven Loffler,
CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering
His research team is developing technology for economically converting into high value chemicals and biofuels a variety of low value waste products, such as:
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waste paper
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forest thinnings
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crop residues
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garden waste.
Waste from paper mills
The researchers have found a way of using a novel chemical process to convert material collected from wastes from paper mills with other lignocellulose rich wastes and residues into a concentrated liquid ‘biocrude oil’ that can be transported easily to a processing plant.
Dr Loffler said that until now it has been uneconomic to use green waste materials, such as forest thinnings and straw, to make biofuels and environmentally friendly chemicals because of the high cost of trucking the bulky waste many hundreds of kilometres for processing.
'There have been plenty of attempts around the world to do this, but the bio-oil has been unstable and turns into bitumen in just weeks,' says Dr Loffler.
Stable oil
'Our process creates a stable oil that can be tankered to the biorefinery in a similar way as crude oil is carried to conventional petrochemical refineries.'
'This renewable liquid can potentially be converted into either fuel replacements or value-added polymers and industrial chemicals, using current technology.'
'The fuel replacements can be gasoline or diesel substitutes, or ethanol.'
CSIRO is now selecting trees with more desirable traits for making biofuels, plastics, and other renewable products that will provide new value streams from forest-based materials.
Other projects
Dr Loffler has led four projects carried out under the auspices of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Functional Communication Surfaces.
These projects have helped paper companies better understand printing performance on various grades of paper, as well as developing fundamental understanding of linerboard behaviour on wetting.
Background
In 1989 Dr Loffler completed a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.
In 1996 he completed his Doctorate in chemical engineering at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Before joining CSIRO in 1998, Dr Loffler was a Research Fellow in the Polymer Science Group, Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Melbourne, where he studied carbon compounds produced during pyrolysis.
Dr Loffler has also been a recipient of a Gottstein Fellowship.
Find out more about CSIRO's work in Forestry.
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