In Europe, E4tech has just completed a new study, ‘From the Sugar Platform to biofuels and biochemicals’ for the European Commission (DG ENER), a comprehensive evidence base for policymakers and industry. The report found that the global market value of the sugar platform is today of the order of $65 billion, with bioethanol (from sugar […]
In Ohio, Battelle recently succeeded at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) challenge of making commercially viable transportation fuels from biomass pyrolysis. Scientists and engineers at Battelle demonstrated the durability of a continuous hydrotreatment process that converts bio oil from biomass pyrolysis into transportation and aviation fuels. The DOE’s specific challenge was to demonstrate at least […]
In Washington DC, ethanol fuel refineries could be releasing much larger amounts of some ozone-forming compounds into the atmosphere than current assessments suggest, according to a new study that found emissions of these chemicals at a major ethanol fuel refinery are many times higher than government estimates. New airborne measurements downwind from an ethanol fuel […]
In Michigan, with support from the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee, Dr. Jonathan Wenzel, assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at Kettering University, is attempting to speed up the process of making biodiesel – a renewable fuel that is made using predominantly soybean oil in the United States, but can be made from animal fats and other […]
In New York state, SCHOTT North America announced that its new oval glass tubes for photobioreactors (PBRs) increased maximum dry biomass output per day by more than 22 percent in its latest study in partnership with Heliae, a technology-driven algae production company. For the first time, SCHOTT’s round glass tubes were retrofitted with oval tubes […]
In the EU, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) released a draft “Low iLUC Risk Biomass Criteria and Compliance Indicators.” This add-on certification module to the RSB standard for biofuels and bio-products is based on the Low Indirect Impact Biofuels (LIIB) Methodology, developed in collaboration with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Ecofys. RSB-certified […]
In Texas, Alternative Fuel Technology adoption could affect long-term state fuel tax revenues with Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) accounting for 13 percent of the domestic passenger fleet and 11 percent of the commercial fleet by 2040, according to a new study from Texas A&M’s Transport Technology Institute’s Transportation Policy Research Center. Alternative Fuel Technology development […]
In Singapore, a team of National University of Singapore researchers from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has developed a set of environment-friendly techniques to produce biodiesel entirely from waste grease more cheaply and efficiently. Traditionally, the high free fatty acid content in waste grease makes it unsuitable for biodiesel production due to technical […]
In Illinois, with access to supercomputing resources at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility, a research team from the University of Minnesota and Rice University has demonstrated a predictive modeling capability that can help accelerate the discovery of new materials to improve biofuel and […]
In California, a potentially game-changing breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions before they are vented into the atmosphere and then, powered by solar energy, convert that carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products, including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels. Scientists […]
