In Washington, the conventional strategy for producing ethanol from plant biomass requires costly pretreatment and enzyme-driven reactions. Refining another strategy known as consolidated bioprocessing (CPB) could reduce costs. In second-generation CPB, a microorganism splits of water and ferments the products to ethanol, reducing the cost. Now, scientists engineered a strain of a CBP bacterium called […]
In Norway, researchers from Bioforsk, the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, will genetically modify tobacco plants to produce enzymes that can break down biomass from forest raw materials. This may lead to a more effective, economic and sustainable production of biofuels. In the first phase of the project researchers from Bioforsk, NFLI (Norwegian […]
In California, a new material, designed and patented by researchers working at the DOE’s Molecular Foundry nanoscience research center, is making this process a little easier. Their findings could pave the way for the adoption of cheaper, cleaner-burning fuels. Natural gasses, like ethane and methane, are hard to store and transport. However, by converting them […]
In Iowa, farmers who are considering selling corn residue from their fields to produce cellulosic ethanol first should weigh a range of site-specific factors to their operations, according to new research from an Iowa State University agronomist. Mahdi Al-Kaisi, a professor of agronomy, is urging farmers to take a thoughtful approach that accounts for variables […]
In Virginia, a team of Virginia Tech researchers discovered a way to create hydrogen fuel using a biological method that greatly reduces the time and money it takes to produce the zero-emissions fuel. This method uses abundantly available corn stover to produce the hydrogen. Unlike other hydrogen fuel production methods that rely on highly processed […]
In the UK, a new study pinpoints five strains of yeast capable of turning agricultural by-products, such as straw, sawdust and corncobs, into bioethanol – a well-known alcohol-based biofuel. It is estimated that more than 400 billion liters of bioethanol could be produced each year from crop wastage. The research team from the University of East […]
In Europe, a leading global forest products company has entered into an FEL-1 license agreement with CRI Catalyst Company (CRI), a global catalyst technology company. CRI will be providing its IH2 technology, which is a thermal catalytic process that produces liquid transportation fuels from forest residues. The IH2 technology is an efficient conversion route for woody biomass and […]
In Wisconsin, clearing grasslands to make way for biofuels may seem counterproductive, but University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show in a study that crops, including the corn and soy commonly used for biofuels, expanded onto 7 million acres of new land in the U.S. over a recent four-year period, replacing millions of acres of grasslands. The […]
In Ohio, the National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Toledo $199,997 for improving and demonstrating the recovery of algal biomass from dilute growth cultures with minimal cost and energy input. This project has the potential to lead to economical use of alternative fuels derived from algal biomass. The lack of low-cost technologies for […]
In Indiana, a new study by Timothy Searchinger published in the journal Science found that government biofuel policies rely on reductions in food consumption to generate greenhouse gas savings. Shrinking the amount of food that people and livestock eat decreases the amount of carbon dioxide that they breathe out or excrete as waste. The reduction in […]
