In New York state, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded an interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers $2 million to study the combination of inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles and bacterial cells for more efficient bioenergy conversion. The Cornell project was one of six selected by the DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research to explore microscopic […]
In Spain, a team from the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the University of Cordoba has been searching for ways to increase hydrogen production by using microorganisms, specifically microalgae and bacteria. In this vein, researchers were able to increase hydrogen production by combining unicellular green alga called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with Escherichia coli bacteria. The […]
In Germany, a team from the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology of the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and the Technical University of Kaiserslautern was able to show how the synthesis of the pink dye phycoerythrobilin works in detail. An enzyme is the key to the color of certain algae. And thus also to their ability […]
In Illinois, Western Illinois University School of Agriculture announced that one of its professors is the recipient of a $10 million federal grant to investigate the use of the alternative crop, Pennycress, as a new cash cover crop in the Midwest. The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant will […]
In New Zealand, a researcher at the University of Canterbury has been awarded NZ$999,999 funded over three years by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise to study integrated chemical looping and oxygen uncoupling with advanced biomass gasification, for renewable hydrogen production and carbon dioxide capture. This research will develop a new system that combines […]
In Australia, a University of Queensland-led study has revealed that future demand for ethanol biofuel could potentially expand sugarcane farming land in Brazil by five million hectares by 2030. UQ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences researcher said that because Brazil produced ethanol from sugarcane, future biofuel demand would directly impact land use. “Our study […]
In Tennessee, scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated a method to insert genes into a variety of microorganisms that previously would not accept foreign DNA, with the goal of creating custom microbes to break down plants for bioenergy. Researchers at the DOE Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) at […]
In Germany, mushroom genetics research, conducted by Ruhr-Universität Bochum researchers and others, could help biofuel production. Some species of trichosporonales fungi can store large amounts of lipids in their cells, and are so-called oil-accumulating fungi, which have therefore been increasingly analyzed in recent years as potential producers of biofuels. Trichosporonales fungi are widespread in the […]
In Michigan, a new study in Nature Communications, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center scientists at Michigan State University have focused on understanding more about the plant regions above the soil where these microbes can live, called the “phyllosphere.” Researchers classified core members of this community in two bioenergy cropping systems: switchgrass and miscanthus. In so […]
In California, with a $2.25 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy, a research group at the University of California Santa Barbara, along with collaborators at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), are poised to advance the knowledge of and technology for advanced biofuels. “Cellulosomes are multi-protein complexes of enzymes that work together to […]
