In Ohio, in a new study published in the journal Applications in Plant Sciences, scientists obviate the need for specimen staining by tapping into the natural autofluorescence of tissues in species across the plant tree of life. When certain tissue types in both plants and animals absorb light, electrons in their atoms get a jolt […]
In Illinois, Argonne National Laboratory researchers, funded by DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office and DOT’s Maritime Administration, showed through a new study that biofuels can significantly reduce shipping emissions – between 40 and 93 percent when compared to conventional heavy fuel oil – while remaining cost-effective. The study used publicly available datasets in ANL’s Greenhouse gases, […]
In Pennsylvania, controlling carbon release into the atmosphere will reduce carbon dioxide and slow global warming, but could there be unintended consequences for human health? Now, thanks to a three-year grant of about $400,000 from the National Science Foundation, researchers at Penn State will investigate potential positives and negatives of decarbonization. The researchers aim to […]
In New York state, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Arkansas have developed a highly efficient catalyst for extracting electrical energy from ethanol, an easy-to-store liquid fuel that can be generated from renewable resources. The catalyst, described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, steers the […]
In China, scientists recently reported a de novo route for artificial starch synthesis from carbon dioxide (CO2) for the first time. Relevant results were published in Science on Sept. 24. The new route makes it possible to shift the mode of starch production from traditional agricultural planting to industrial manufacturing, and opens up a new […]
In California, Lehigh University Energy Research Center (ERC) has been awarded a new $3.5 million project by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the development of advanced technology for rapid detection and analysis of MSW streams. This project will be part of a $34 million effort from the Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) of the […]
In India, Tribune India reports that scientists at Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry devised a method employing micro-organisms to break down pine needles into ethanol. Pine needles are often a source of forest fires in India causing huge losses every year. The scientists of the Department of Basic Sciences had been on […]
In Botswana, University of Botswana research indicates that Botswana has enough feedstock to yield more than 15 million liters of B20 biodiesel annually, thus slowly turning into reality Botswana’s dream to become a biodiesel producing country. The data collected so far suggests that Botswana had enough feedstock to support a biodiesel plant with a capacity […]
In the UK, engineers at Lancaster University have led research that discovers a way to generate renewable biofuel additives, using radiation that could be derived from nuclear waste. The renewable proportion of petrol is set to increase to 20 per cent over the coming years, meaning the discovery of a new production pathway for these […]
In Hong Kong, inspired by a kind of tree leaf, scientists at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) discovered that the spreading direction of different liquids deposited on the same surface can be steered, solving a challenge that has remained for over two centuries. This breakthrough could ignite a new wave of using 3D surface […]
