In Canada, with financial support from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s AgriScience Program, a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) aims to produce durable and homogeneous pellets with consistent quality from under-utilized and low-quality biomass resources in Canada. As a member of BioFuelNet Canada (BFN), the UBC Biomass & Bioenergy Research Group […]
In Massachusetts, students and faculty from UMass’ iCons Program will construct a pilot-scale biodigester to generate useful experimental data, rationalized via mathematical models, that support a proposal for the implementation of a large-scale bioreactor on campus. The technology will improve campus sustainability by continuously recycling organic waste into useful fertilizer and biofuel. The pilot-scale biodigester […]
In Sweden, researchers at Linköping University are attempting to convert carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, to fuel using energy from sunlight. Recent results have shown that it is possible to use their technique to selectively produce methane, carbon monoxide or formic acid from carbon dioxide and water. The study has been published in ACS Nano. […]
In China, inspired by the yolk-shell structure of eggs and the structural ordering of cell surfaces in the evolution, researchers proposed highly stable single cyanobacterium capsules with an ordered yolk-shell structure of uniformly organized and tunable nanoporosity shaped by protein-assisted, hydrophilic colloidal silica packing. The void between the ordered nanoporous shell and cell is created […]
In Tennessee, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are developing new and valuable uses for lignin, a byproduct of biorefineries and the pulp and paper industry. These new product streams can take advantage of the natural properties of lignin in biomass to create materials with unique performance advantages. ORNL’s lignin-based inventions include: Renewable composites for […]
In Austria, the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Systems Working Group at TU Graz’s Institute of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology – one of the leading international groups in the field of hydrogen research – has therefore been looking for ways to make hydrogen production more attractive. As part of the HyStORM (Hydrogen Storage via Oxidation […]
In Russia, researchers from St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI” have developed a model of biofuel cell for electricity generation using cyanobacteria. The developers created and tested a model of a biofuel cell for the photogeneration of electricity based on cyanobacteria. Researchers focused on the design and optimization of nanostructured anodes on which life cells were […]
In California, a new set of projects by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could make agriculture both more sustainable and more profitable. The three projects, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), leverage Berkeley Lab’s strengths in artificial intelligence, sensors, and ecological biology. They aim to quantify and reduce the carbon […]
In the Netherlands, University of Leiden researchers have found minute movements in the laccase enzyme, a very efficient catalyst, which makes it interesting for use in biofuel cells. The laccase enzyme is able to efficiently create water from oxygen without creating hydrogen peroxide, an unstable compound that would damage biofuel cells. Because proteins tend to […]
In Colorado, National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers experimented with a common method in the pulp and paper industry used for bleaching to see how well this method could deconstruct biomass. The method known as “ozonolysis” was applied to corn stover in the lab. Results showed that using ozonolysis helped to breakdown the biomass with a […]
