Author Archive: Jim Lane

rss feed

Soil Microbes Flourish with Reduced Tillage

Soil Microbes Flourish with Reduced Tillage

October 6, 2016 |

Soil microbes generally increase quality of soil by cycling nutrients and breaking plant residues down into soil organic matter. Currently, a third of US farmers no longer till their farms with more farmers resorting to conservation tillage after farmers started abandoning ploughing in favour of a practice known as no-till agriculture. Stacy Zuber who is […]

Read More

New Study Shows Industrial Biotech Set to Drive Jobs and Growth Creation in EU

New Study Shows Industrial Biotech Set to Drive Jobs and Growth Creation in EU

October 6, 2016 |

In Europe, on the 27th September, 2016, EuropaBio launched the findings of a new study at the European Parliament as part of European Biotech Week celebrations across Europe. The Chair of EuropaBio’s Industrial Biotech Council and Managing Board member of Royal DSM, Stephen Tanda made a few comments about the report. He said it is […]

Read More

Cosmetics Would Now Get 100% Bio-Based Containers

Cosmetics Would Now Get 100% Bio-Based Containers

October 6, 2016 |

In the Netherlands, the new 100% bio-based cosmetic containers were presented during the 2nd Bio-based Business Event at the Emmtec Industry & Businesspark in Emmen on the 22nd of September, 2016. The containers that were produced from BioPET100 was a product of a partnership between Dutch SME’s and universities in the country The aromatic building […]

Read More

Pigeons Can Learn to Visually Recognize Words

Pigeons Can Learn to Visually Recognize Words

October 6, 2016 |

In New Zealand, there is no doubt that Pigeons are one of the most interesting family of birds. A new study has highlighted that Pigeons (specifically Columba livia) can be trained to separate real words from non-words. According to researchers from University of Otago, the pigeons learn to differentiate based on the orthographic properties that […]

Read More

Aviation climate agreement reached at ICAO

Aviation climate agreement reached at ICAO

October 6, 2016 |

In Canada, the worldwide aviation industry has applauded a crucial climate agreement reached by governments meeting at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) today. The negotiations, to put in place the world’s first carbon offsetting scheme for any global sector, have had the backing of the aviation industry, which first proposed the measure in 2009. […]

Read More

Popeye was right: there’s super energy in that spinach

Popeye was right: there’s super energy in that spinach

September 25, 2016 |

Researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology came up with what could pose as one of the most interesting discoveries from plants. The researchers came up with a bio-photo-electro-chemical (BPEC) cell that can produce hydrogen, oxygen and more importantly electricity from water using sunlight with the basis of the entire cell being a simple membrane […]

Read More

Breakthrough in salt-tolerant plant development

Breakthrough in salt-tolerant plant development

September 25, 2016 |

Plant development research has seen some tremendous contribution from researchers with discoveries that always enhance plant growth and development. It is in this same vein that researchers from University of Adelaide (from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology in collaboration with the School of Medicine) made a breakthrough in findings into salt […]

Read More

European ethanol’s greenhouse gas savings increase 8.5% in 2015: new report

European ethanol’s greenhouse gas savings increase 8.5% in 2015: new report

September 25, 2016 |

In the EU, ethanol’s direct greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) savings compared to fossil fuel have increased from 59% in 2014 to 64% in 2015, an increase of 8.5% against the 2014 figure, according to new industry statistics published by the European renewable ethanol association ePURE. The European renewable ethanol industry – Annual statistics report 2016*, […]

Read More

New €3.8M SUPERBIO project to support industrial bio innovation in EU

New €3.8M SUPERBIO project to support industrial bio innovation in EU

September 25, 2016 |

In the EU, the new SuperBIO project worth €3.8 million primarily targets developing promising industrial value chains in the bio economy. The innovative project is supported through the EU Horizon2020 programme. The SuperBIO consortium includes four industrial cluster organisations and six service providers The project would also seek to build partnerships and connections by engaging […]

Read More

Borregaard invests $70.7M in bioethanol plant upgrade

Borregaard invests $70.7M in bioethanol plant upgrade

September 16, 2016 |

In Norway, Borregaard is going to install modern production technology at a bioethanol plant and construct a facility to capture and store biogas. This will create sufficient capacity to deliver the whole production as 100% water-free bioethanol. The demand for bioethanol in automotive fuel is increasing. The new installation will also make it possible to […]

Read More

}