In Illinois, Illinois State Associate Professor of Genetics John Sedbrook is collaborating on a $1 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop genetic resources that can be used to rapidly domesticate field pennycress as a new winter annual oilseed cover crop. Illinois State University’s portion of the grant is $367,021, […]
In Australia, enzymes, described as the ‘engine rooms’ of the natural world, can now work up to 16 times faster thanks to ‘paradigm shifting’ technology developed between Flinders and University of California Irvine. The latest breakthrough adds to a suite of clean technology being developed by Flinders University with its novel Vortex Fluidic Device, which enables […]
In Massachusetts, soil fungi secrete a wide range of enzymes that play an important role in biofuel production and bioremediation of metal-contaminated soils and water. A recent study reveals different fungal species secrete a rich set of enzymes that share similar functions, despite species-specific differences in the amino acid sequences of these enzymes. The study […]
In Virginia, Northern Great Plains of North and South Dakota, which support over 40 percent of United States commercial honey bee colonies, are quickly becoming less conducive to commercial beekeeping as a result of land-use changes, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study published Monday. The USGS scientists found that landscape features favored by beekeepers […]
In California, the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium at San José State University released a study on the generation of various pollutants during low-temperature combustion (LTC) of several types of biodiesel in comparison to ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD).The researchers found that biodiesel may have the advantage of reducing the size and number of soot particles emitted. […]
In Michigan, new study from University of Michigan researchers challenges the widely held assumption that biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are inherently carbon neutral. Contrary to popular belief, the heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas emitted when biofuels are burned is not fully balanced by the CO2 uptake that occurs as the plants grow, according to […]
In Brazil, researchers at Parana Technological University have developed a prototype vehicle that can run more than 300km on a single liter of ethanol. The prototype vehicle can only carry a single passenger weighing less than 45kg, however. The fuel efficiency partly comes from not going very fast, so the team says it needs to […]
In Washington, the Department of Energy’s Small Business Vouchers program awarded $8 million worth of research vouchers to 43 small businesses, of which five were related to bioenergy: Avatar Sustainable Technologies, Syracuse, New York Avatar Sustainable Technologies will work with the with National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop a method to economically use waste from […]
In Texas, the Process Engineering R&D Center, a part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station at Texas A&M, is offering a short course, entitled “Practical Short Course on Plant Operations and Process Engineering for Solvent and Biofuel Facilities,” Oct. 16-19 at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. The course objectives are to receive comprehensive […]
Yeast, they’re so small that they probably all look like twins, all work the same, do the same things. Not so, says DOE Joint Genome Insitute’s Robert Riley, who tells The Digest, “We might think of yeasts as simple unicellular, creatures similar to each other, but in fact their genetic diversity is like the difference […]
