In Washington state, Hanwu Lei, Washington State University Tri-Cities associate professor in biological systems engineering, was awarded a $494,000 grant this fall to research catalysts, which will be used to increase the energy output and performance of biofuels. Lei said he will use the biomass-derived catalysts to produce aromatic hydrocarbons, which are high-energy organic compounds […]
In Illinois, the Argonne GREET team will hold two-day GREET users workshop on October 15-16, 2015, at Argonne National Laboratory to help familiarize GREET users with new developments and updates of the GREET 2015 suite of models. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the GREET (Greenhouse gases, […]
In Michigan, the SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change) project launched today about 25 miles north of Grand Rapids. The site consists of about seven acres of raised bog in the peatlands of the Chippewa National Forest. With the ability to control heating of the air and soil within the enclosures […]
In Illinois, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory developed an approach to design such landscapes at a field scale to minimize concerns of land use change, water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with production of food and bioenergy. This study leverages concepts of nutrient recovery and phytoremediation to place bioenergy crops on the landscape to […]
In North Carolina, the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) has published two reports, which are the first to result from EREF’s Internal Research Program (IRP). The reports are “Using Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as a Biofuel Feedstock” and “Anaerobic Digestion of MSW: Report on the State of Practice.” Using a first-of-its-kind Life-Cycle Assessment model […]
In Latvia, researchers led by the University of Latvia Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology have demonstrated the viability of a technique that produces both ethanol and furfural from wheat straw. Producing furfural from biomass typically involves destroying up to half of the cellulosic material, reducing yields for ethanol production significantly but the researchers claim to […]
In Australia, a researcher from Queensland University of Technology is working to develop technology to turn sugarcane bagasse into aviation and other fuels under a $4.5 million grant from the Federal Government. The target market is the US Navy who is seeking biofuel filling stations in Australia to supply its green fleet. Already Queenland ports […]
In France, Global Bioenergies reports that they have produced isobutene by fermentation based exclusively on xylose as a feedstock. Performances using xylose were similar to those obtained when running the process on wheat-derived glucose or sugar beet-derived sucrose, the company said. The production strain’s central metabolism was remodeled using an innovative synthetic biology approach. An […]
In Australia, The solid waste left over from wine-making could make a competitive biofuel, University of Adelaide researchers have found. Published in the journal Bioresource Technology, the researchers showed that up to 400 litres of bioethanol could be produced by fermentation of a tonne of grape marc (the leftover skins, stalks and seeds from wine-making). Global […]
In India, researchers from the Institute of Wood Science & Technology under Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education of found that pongamia trees that are being promoted as a biodiesel feedstock are susceptible to infestations of the gall midge. The midge lays its eggs in the pongamia flowers and over time destroys the flowers […]
