In Massachusetts, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working with torrefaction to help small farmers be able to use the technology to produce fuel. Their project is a reactor that uses torrefaction to densify biomass, making it transportable and increasing its shelf life. Torrefaction technology has been used at the industrial scale for […]
In Montana, a Montana State University scientist has received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. DOE’s Office of Science to research ways to improve the usefulness of camelina, an ancient crop that the modern world has come to value as a potential source of alternative fuel. The project was one of seven totaling $7.8 […]
In the UK, Roberto Rinaldi FRSC, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London has been awarded a highly prestigious EUR2 million European Research Council Consolidator Grant to fund his world-leading work on lignin valorization. These highly competitive grants are awarded to outstanding early career researchers to help them consolidate […]
In the UK, researchers at the University of Manchester have developed a new method for breaking down cellulose into sugars that they claim is significantly cheaper and faster through the use of a certain fungus in conjunction with enzymes to help jumpstart the process. The method eliminates the need for expensive and time-consuming chemical pre-treatment […]
In Massachusetts, microbiologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have discovered a new type of natural wire produced by bacteria that could greatly accelerate the researchers’ goal of developing sustainable “green” conducting materials for the electronics industry. The study by Derek Lovley and colleagues appears this week in mBio, the American Society […]
In Massachusetts, MIT engineers have genetically reprogrammed a strain of yeast so that it converts sugars to fats much more efficiently, an advance that could make possible the renewable production of high-energy fuels such as diesel. The researchers modified the metabolic pathways of yeast that naturally produce large quantities of lipids, to make them about […]
In New York state, to unravel how intricate waste biomass converts to biofuels, a Cornell professor studied the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum to decipher its metabolism. Understanding the bacterium’s sugar-processing complexities may lead to improved biofuel yields. She used an emerging biochemical approach, called metabolomics, to track different sugar carbon atoms inside the bacterial cells and […]
In New York state, SUNY Morrisville is doing its part in supporting New York’s dynamic and evolving economy, pioneering the reintroduction of hemp to New York State. Under a research license from MSC, JD Farms in Eaton, Madison County, is experimenting with growing hemp as a commercial crop. JD Farms is New York’s first industrial […]
In Washington state, a new, approximately $6-million collaborative project is using a unique climate-simulating laboratory system as part of a new streamlined process to quickly pare down heaps of algae species into just a few that hold the most promise for renewable fuels. Discovering which algae species is best suited to make biofuel is no […]
In Germany, the peer-reviewed scientific journal Energy Technology has just published a Special Issue on Pyrolysis for Energy Technologies. The issue was guest edited by George Huber (University of Wisconsin) and Robert Brown (Iowa State University). The entire issue is free to access for all of 2017 and has contributions from many of the leaders in […]
