In Illinois, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory have conducted a detailed study of the reflectivity effects of converting land to grow biofuel crops. Their study is part of an overall analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from land use change: instances where land that was previously forests, grasslands or pastureland […]
In the EU, Open-Bio has launched a database that provides relevant information about bio-based end products to assist public buyers in making purchasing decisions. The main goal? To simplify the lives of procurement officials that want to pay more attention to bio-based products but don’t know where to start. The database presents various bio-based products which […]
In Austria, researchers led by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna are coordinating the EU-funded project GREENLAND that in part aims to use trees such as poplars and willow to clean up superfund sites. Not only do the trees’ roots suck up polluted water but bacteria can also be added to […]
In Botswana, the University of Botswana took its research program to loftier heights when it launched an experimental vehicle that uses biodiesel fuel on November 14, 2016. The vehicle uses blended fuel (B10) which is 90 per cent petroleum diesel (50PPM) and 10 per cent biodiesel produced by University of Botswana researchers. The launch was […]
In Germany, researchers have developed a hybrid of a fuel cell and capacitor on a biocatalytic basis. With the aid of enzymatic processes, what’s known as a biosupercapacitor efficiently generates and stores energy. The trick: the enzymes are embedded in a stable polymer gel, which can store a large amount of energy. The scientists at […]
In Japan, researchers at the University of Tsukuba have developed a technology to produce improved surgical sealants using gelatin of cold-water fish in particular (e.g. cod, hake, Alaska pollock and salmon) because the biomaterial basically makes the sealants waterproof. Tests performed on mice and pig tissue performed well, with the material biodegrading in eight weeks […]
In California, Stanford University reports that an interdisciplinary team at Stanford has made significant strides toward solving the solar energy storage issue, demonstrating the most efficient means yet of storing electricity captured from sunlight in the form of chemical bonds. As Stanford observed in a release, “that stored energy can be recovered later in different […]
In Arkansas, the University of Arkansas is helping lead an effort to develop a bioscience network of scientists in the United States and Southeast Asia. The National Science Foundation recently awarded a $500,000 grant to establish the Food, Energy, Water and Ecosystems Resources Research Coordination Network, to build a team of minority and minority-serving faculty […]
In Missouri, a computer scientist at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a way to coax cells to do natural things under unnatural circumstances, which could be useful for stem cell research, gene therapy and biofuel production. Michael Brent, the Henry Edwin Sever Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, […]
In Germany, microbes are already used on a wide scale for the production of fuels and base chemicals, but for this most of them have to be “fed” with sugar. However, since sugar-based biotechnology finds itself in competition with food production, it is faced with increasingly fierce criticism. Carbon dioxide has meanwhile become the focus […]
