In California, scientists at the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Santa Catalina Island, working with private industry, report that a new aquaculture technique on the California coast dramatically increases kelp growth, yielding four times more biomass than natural processes. The technique employs a contraption called the “kelp elevator” that optimizes growth for the […]
In China, researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing Normal University recently reported a strategy for boosting the electrocatalytic performance of palladium (Pd) in ethanol oxidation reaction, the key anodic reaction of direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs), offering a rational concept for finely engineering the surface […]
In Colorado, a study conducted by scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows for the first time that white-rot fungi are able to use carbon captured from lignin as a carbon source, which could be further exploited to simultaneously convert the biopolymer into value-added compounds. The research confirms a hypothesis from Davinia Salvachúa […]
In Illinois, Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) found that transitioning land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to bioenergy agriculture can be advantageous for American landowners, the government, and the environment. Land enrolled in the CRP cannot currently be used for bioenergy crop production, wherein high-yielding plants (like […]
In Colorado, to help light that path to net-zero emissions, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a comprehensive vision for deeply decarbonizing transportation. It is a strategy rooted in cross-cutting research and engineering to enable industry stakeholders, communities, government agencies, and early adopters to meet their climate goals. In NREL’s vision, adapting to […]
In Arizona, a researcher from Arizona State University describes for the first time how the chain elongation processes are carried out by microorganisms under normal conditions in soil. The work promises to shed new light on these poorly understood processes in nature, allowing researchers to better leverage them to convert organic sources like food waste […]
In California, Amyris announced highly promising preliminary data in a pre-clinical study of its ribonucleic acid (RNA) COVID-19 vaccine platform as well as the potential to address current manufacturing, supply scale-up and refrigerated storage and distribution challenges. On October 22, 2020, Amyris announced that it entered into a collaboration agreement and exclusive license with the […]
In Germany, Covestro reports their latest research as part of the “DreamResource” joint project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research shows they can use up to 20 percent CO2 instead of oil in rigid polyurethane foam which is important for more sustainable construction materials. An initial prototype of an insulation board […]
In Illinois, a research team with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a product to accurately measure gross primary production (GPP), which quantifies the rate of CO2 fixation in plants through photosynthesis: the SatelLite Only Photosynthesis Estimation Gross Primary Production (SLOPE […]
In France, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have found that microbes from the guts of certain termite species can help break down lignin, a particularly tough polymer in straw. In previous research, they showed that gut microbes from four termite species could degrade lignin in anaerobic bioreactors. Now they wanted to take […]
