In Thailand, researchers from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi have developed a method to produce ethanol from water hyacinth and are working to scale it up so it at be produced commercially. Demand for sugarcane, cassava and palm oil for biofuel feedstocks have created shortages, creating the need to find other feedstocks that wouldn’t […]
In India, researchers at CSIR-NIIST have produced a cellulose enzyme complex originating from Western Ghat soil they say will bring the cost of cellulosic ethanol production thanks to its increased efficiency. It can produce 5 to 10 liters of ethanol from 70 to 80 kilograms of biomass, be it sugarcane bagasse or various kinds of […]
In Switzerland, in a new method by EPFL chemists, the simple addition of formaldehyde could turn lignin into the main focus. Because it is difficult to process, lignin is usually discarded during biofuel processing. EPFL scientists have now turned lignin from a nuisance to an important source of biofuel by simply adding a common chemical, converting […]
In Missouri, James Umen, Ph.D., associate member at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and colleagues have discovered a way to make algae better oil producers without sacrificing growth. Umen and his team found the oil-accumulating mutation in Chlamydomonas, called vip1-1, while investigating how two conserved signaling systems interact with one another. One system involves a […]
In the EU, IRENA released its latest report, Innovation Outlook: Advanced Liquid Biofuels, the second in the Innovation Outlook series which includes a renewable mini-grid report and an upcoming offshore wind power report, reveals a future global outlook for advanced liquid biofuel technology. It provides a detailed overview of the promising technological developments for commercialised advanced biofuel […]
In Sweden, a Swedish research team involving researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the Karolinska Institute has developed an efficient, accurate and non-destructive way to detect the occurrence and purity of cellulose. The technique, which was published in Scientific Reports, can be applied in mixtures of biopolymers, as well. The researchers […]
In Missouri, researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and colleagues have discovered a way to make algae better oil producers without sacrificing growth. The findings were published September 6, in a paper titled, “Synergism between inositol polyphosphates and TOR kinase signaling in nutrient sensing, growth control and lipid metabolism in Chlamydomonas,” in The […]
In North Carolina, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, aided by a $1.87 million federal grant, has embarked on a three-year project to study the production of sorghum as biomass for fuel and high-value chemicals in the Mid-Atlantic region. The project, involving scientists at land-grant universities in two Southeastern states and numerous industry partners, is enabled by […]
In Wisconsin, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered “super yeast” could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels and bioproducts. Though […]
In California, Microvi has been awarded a grant from the US Department of Energy for a new groundbreaking biocatalytic technology that converts methane and carbon dioxide in biogas into valuable liquid chemicals, the company announced today. The new technology, based on Microvi’s MicroNiche Engineering Platform Technology, can convert biogas that is created at facilities like […]
