In Illinois, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a $13 million grant to a nationwide project led by Illinois State University aimed at genetically strengthening Thlaspi arvense, commonly known as the weed pennycress and a relative of canola for use in sustainable energy efforts. The grant from the DOE will allow researchers to improve […]
In Iowa, a new federal grant will allow a research team led by Iowa State University, Penn State and Roeslein Alternative Energy to develop new methods of turning biomass and manure into fuel. The five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture will power the Consortium for […]
In Illinois, in a new study, University of Illinois researchers mine the Miscanthus’ vast genomic potential in an effort to speed up the breeding process and maximize its most desirable traits. In conventional breeding, one typical approach is for researchers to grow individuals from a diverse set of populations and select those with the best […]
In China, an interdisciplinary team of scientists in China, the Netherlands, and Germany, rationally designed proton-conducting protein constituent materials that exceeded previously reported proteinaceous (consisting of or containing protein) systems. They developed the structures through stepwise exploration of peptide sequences from intrinsically disordered coils to protein-supercharged polypeptide chimeras. The new design paradigm offers potential for […]
In Brazil, an optical fiber made of agar has been produced at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. This device is edible, biocompatible and biodegradable. It can be used in vivo for body structure imaging, localized light delivery in phototherapy or optogenetics (e.g., stimulating neurons with light to study […]
In Brazil, scientists from the Federal University of Espírito Santo produced biodiesels using an innovative source of catalysts, a mixture of metal hydroxides: lithium-sodium (LiOH + NaOH) or lithium-potassium (LiOH + KOH) and waste cooking oil from fast food chains and households as the oily raw feedstock. They used the lithium waste due to the […]
In Illinois, Argonne researchers have quantified how to reduce emissions by farms changing their practices and adopting novel technologies. A recent study by researchers in the Energy Systems division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory quantified how much farms might reduce emissions by changing their practices and adopting novel technologies. The […]
In California, as a proof of concept, researchers developed an algorithm that “taught” a computer how to classify 101 representative genomes of Dothideomycetes, the largest class of fungi, by lifestyles. The machine “learned” to identify data generated in part through the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project, including 55 newly sequenced species. The class Dothideomycetes includes fungi […]
In Brazil, Brazilian researchers demonstrated a new chemical approach for producing biodiesel from domestic cooking oil waste by using hydroxide lithium mixed with either sodium hydroxides or potassium hydroxides as catalysts. Their work, published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, by AIP Publishing, could enable future studies related to the use of lithium […]
In Colorado, a new single-phase catalyst that enables the conversion of renewable and waste carbon into sustainable diesel fuels has been developed through a unique collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) consortia, Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy (ChemCatBio) and the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative. […]
