In Japan, a team of researchers from Tohoku University has developed a new method for the pretreatment of organic material, or “biomass”, which could lead to more efficient production of biofuels and biochemicals. The new method involves crushing the leaves and stalks of maize plants and placing the resulting powder in a solution of sodium […]
In Denmark, one family of enzymes, lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs), ease the transformation of cellulose. Chemists at the University of Copenhagen have now taken a leap ahead in understanding how LPMOs work by showing how these enzymes bind to cellulose. This can be incredibly important for, among other things, the development and production of sustainable […]
In Switzerland, Evolva scientists, collaborating with researchers at the Plant Biochemistry Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, published the paper “Expanding the Landscape of Diterpene Structural Diversity through Stereochemically Controlled Combinatorial Biosynthesis”, in the International Edition of Angewandte Chemie, Plant-derived diterpenoids are used extensively in food ingredients, pharmaceuticals, and fragrances. Conventional wisdom holds that they are too […]
In Minnesota, NatureWorks will construct a new, $1 million, 8,300 square-foot laboratory to commercialize a fermentation process for transforming methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into lactic acid, the building block of Ingeo biopolymer. NatureWorks is hiring six scientists to staff the new facility. The methane to lactic acid research project began in 2013 as a […]
In Florida, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers may have found a key to converting algae to fuel. The scientists have found what researchers call a “transcription factor,” called ROC40. Bala Rathinasabapathi, a UF/IFAS professor of horticultural sciences, likened a transcription factor’s role in controlling the expression of many genes inside […]
In Pennsylvania, the first harvest of 34 acres of fast-growing shrub willow from a Penn State demonstration field this winter is a milestone in developing a sustainable biomass supply for renewable energy and bio-based economic development, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. The shrub willow plantation is part of a broader […]
In Virginia, a researcher at the University of Virginia has said that as strategies for energy security, investment opportunities and energy policies prompt ever-growing production and consumption of biofuels like bioethanol and biodiesel, land and water that could otherwise be used for food production increasingly are used to produce crops for fuel. About 4 percent […]
In China, researchers from MIT looked at gaseous substrates that could be made available at low cost and sufficiently large scale for industrial fuel production using a new bioconversion scheme that effectively converts syngas, generated from gasification of coal, natural gas, or biomass, into lipids that can be used for biodiesel production. The integrated conversion […]
In Germany, UFOP says that despite record consumption of around 37 million tons of diesel fuel, in 2015, biodiesel sales fell by 0.165 million tons compared with 2014. The admixture proportion of biodiesel fell by 6.5 percent in 2014 to 5.8 percent, according to information provided by the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and […]
In Tennessee, a small stand of poplar trees harvested from a University of Tennessee AgResearch Center is set to help scientists progress further down the path toward low-cost, high-quality biomass and a bioeconomy. Located on UT’s East Tennessee AgResearch Center in Blount County, the 10-acre plot of hybrid poplars was planted just over four years […]
