In Wisconsin, a team based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center found clues in red-hued yeasts that could help harness the synthesis pathway for large-scale production of isobutanol as a biofuel. A red pigment called pulcherrimin, naturally produced by several strains of wild yeasts, is synthesized in part through […]
In Illinois, a research team at Argonne National Lab released its GREET 2018 update. GREET is a life-cycle analysis (LCA) tool, structured to systematically examine energy and environmental effects of a wide variety of transportation fuels and vehicle technologies in major transportation sectors (i.e., road, air, marine, and rail). There are two GREET modeling platforms; […]
In Illinois, for centuries, sugarcane has supplied human societies with alcohol, biofuel, building and weaving materials, and the world’s most relied-upon source of sugar. Now, researchers have extracted a sweet scientific prize from sugarcane: its massive and complex genome sequence, which may lead to the development of hardier and more productive cultivars. Producing the comprehensive […]
In California, bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won’t work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis. By attaching light-absorbing nanoparticles made of cadmium sulfide (CdS) to […]
In Wisconsin, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) with partners at the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) have shown that a recently-discovered variety of the substance, catechyl lignin (C-lignin), has attributes that could make it well-suited as the starting point for a range of bioproducts. Their findings have […]
In California, researchers at UC Davis are stressing out poplar plants on purpose by elevating temperatures, lowering water access and seeing how they can redesign poplar to withstand the added stresses. Poplar provides a fast-growing woody feedstock for biofuels and the rising frequency of these stressful periods inspires a race to find more tolerant plants. […]
In Michigan, with $2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, University of Michigan researchers aim to make the long-touted promise of algae as a biofuel source for diesel engines into a reality. Their goal: create biofuels that work with existing diesel engines and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent, compared with normal diesel […]
In Australia, researchers from the University of Melbourne show how plant walls could be manipulated in the future to change the way we produce biofuels, bioplastics and other biomaterials. In particular, understanding how to control the production of flexible primary walls, which support cell growth, has been an important goal for biologists. The sugar-based polymers […]
In New Jersey, green algae that evolved to tolerate hostile and fluctuating conditions in salt marshes and inland salt flats are expected to survive climate change, thanks to hardy genes they stole from bacteria, according to a Rutgers-led study. These Picochlorum single-celled species of green algae provide clues to how nature can modify genomes, and […]
In Russia, pyrolysis can be organized automatically for heat generation out of the most common type of biomass such as peat and straw. That is, it is sufficient to heat biomass to a certain temperature and then the process proceeds in the autothermal mode due to its own heat release. This technology was studied by […]
