In Washington state, researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory successfully converted food waste from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Coyote Ridge Corrections Center into an energy-dense biofuel that could help replace today’s fossil fuels. Early results suggest food waste might deliver a trifecta of efficiency, economic and environmental benefits. First, from an efficiency standpoint, food waste’s […]
In Canada, Canadian farmers are looking to reduce waste, and plant-based plastics are an increasingly popular alternative as part of a growing Canadian bioeconomy. Creating exciting new options for Canadian farmers, while supporting them in responsibly managing on-farm plastic waste, is helping to build a healthier economy and environment. Today the Minister of Agriculture and […]
In France, researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and West Virginia University, in collaboration with industry partners Southern California Gas Company and C4-MCP, developed a process that converts methane—the primary component of natural gas—into hydrogen while emitting zero CO2. The process also creates carbon solids for manufacturing applications. The hydrogen can be used in fuel […]
In Nevada, researchers from the University of Nevada-Reno believe the cactus pear, with its high heat tolerance and low water use, may be able to provide fuel and food in places that previously haven’t been able to grow much in the way of sustainable crops. As part of the College’s Experiment Station unit, researchers recently […]
In China, a single-celled alga undergoes genome surgery to remove non-essential parts. This can lead to a most efficient cellular factory for producing sustainable biofuels from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of BioEnergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have stripped hundred-kilobase genome from a type […]
In Ohio, University of Dayton researchers have helped a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) team take another step toward turning wet food waste into a sustainable aviation fuel. The team’s fuel from food waste resulted in a 165% drop in net carbon emissions compared to fossil jet fuel, not only […]
In California, hoping to discover new and improved ways of processing plant material for industrial purposes, researchers from UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have been studying the gut microbiomes of the planet’s most prolific herbivores: ruminant animals such as goats. The team generated reconstructions of the many thousands of microbial […]
In France, as part of a marathon research effort to lower the cost of carbon capture, chemists have now demonstrated a method to seize carbon dioxide that reduces costs by 19 percent compared to current commercial technology. The new technology requires 17 percent less energy to accomplish the same task as its commercial counterparts, surpassing […]
In Washington state, most of the carbon contained in soil is in the form of organic matter. The composition of this matter is determined by plants, microbes, and soil. However, scientists do not fully understand how variation in plant inputs, the structure of microbial communities, and the physical and chemical attributes of soil interact to […]
In Denmark, new research suggests that the diversity of the microbial community involved in sugarcane ethanol fermentation processes plays a significant role in its performance. Selecting the right bacteria could increase ethanol production by more than a billion liters per year, considering Brazil alone. In a study recently published in Nature Communications, scientists from The […]
