In the UK, researchers from the Department of Chemistry at York have discovered a family of enzymes that can degrade hard-to-digest biomass into its constituent sugars. Reported in Nature Chemical Biology, the new research was led by Professor Paul Walton and Professor Gideon Davies at York and also involved Professor Bernie Henrissat, of CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, […]
In Montana, scientists are researching the production of oil-producing algae, as well the feasibility of commercial-scale biofuel production based on microbes discovered in Yellowstone National Park. Part of a multi-institutional project funded by a grant through the Sustainable Energy Pathways program at the National Science Foundation, it is one of many algal biofuel research projects […]
In Switzerland, a recent study shows that farmers can help protect grassland biodiversity by varying management intensity over time, despite trends in research demonstrating intensification of agricultural land use threatening biodiversity. The study compiled an index of “multidiversity,” which measures total ecosystem biodiversity. The index showed that overall biodiversity declined, particularly with rarer species, with […]
In Ireland, researchers at the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority are leading a European project analyzing grasses that can be grown on marginal land but are also suitable for biofuel production. The GrassMargins project is analyzing tall fescue, cock’s foot (also known as orchard grass) and canary reed grass, all native to Europe. For […]
In New York state, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a new way to regulate the production of phenols, a class of plant products with a wide range of applications for humans. These compounds serve as an important source of flavors, fragrances, and pigments; some are of interest for […]
In the UK, researchers led by the University of Newcastle have developed a holistic high-throughput methodology for assessing sweet Sorghum bicolor feedstocks at 10 days post-anthesis for total fermentable sugar yields including stalk biomass, soluble sugar concentrations, and cell wall saccharification efficiency. This methodology has been demonstrated as an efficient and effective way to screen […]
In New York, F-box proteins have a negative effect on plant phenols’ production, according to recent research at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. With this information, the lab hopes to engineer a new way to regulate the production of phenols which influence biomass to biofuel conversion efficiency. “This strategy of increasing PAL degradation to reduce cell-wall […]
In Germany, a study published in Nature on Tuesday, describes the sugar beet reference genome sequence generated by researchers both from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and the University of Bielefeld, in cooperation with other centres and plant breeders. Sugar beet accounts for nearly 30% of the world’s […]
In Washington state, engineers have created a continuous chemical process that produces useful crude oil minutes after they pour in harvested algae — a verdant green paste with the consistency of pea soup. The research by engineers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was reported recently in the journal Algal Research. A biofuels […]
In the UK, the Dept. for Transport commissioned a report from E4Tech that is a first holistic analysis of the whole list of potential advanced biofuel feedstocks to determine which should be considered for multiple counting under blending mandates. It gathers consistent information and defines a rationale for including feedstocks within Annex IX using a […]
