In Colorado, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will partner with Johnson Matthey, a global specialty chemicals company, in a five-year, $7 million effort to economically produce drop-in gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from nonfood biomass feedstocks.
In Mississippi, the USDA is funding research by agricultural economists from Mississippi State University evaluating the effects of risk, incentives and environmental policy on economic sustainability resulting from the development of a Southeastern biofuels industry.
In California, an enzyme to boost the amount of galactic (a polymer of galactose, a 6-carbon sugar that can be fermented into ethanol) in plant cell walls has been discovered by the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). This discovery will help to make advanced biofuels cost-competitive by maximizing the amount of plant cell […]
In California, OriginOil has announced that its algae harvesting process reduces bacterial concentrations by up to 99%, although this was achieved in a laboratory. Also, the life of algae was extended up to 12 days. Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil, said, “Our End-to-End Production Model shows that you need a lot of acreage to afford […]
In Thailand, the National Innovation Agency has teamed with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan to launch a pilot project that will use cassava pulp as a feedstock for ethanol, thanks to a $9 million R&D grant, and will focus on hydrolysis of starch and cellulose for industrial production of ethanol.
In Canada, Cellufuel will set up R&D facilities at the former Bowater paper mill site where it is set to build a demo facility for its biodiesel technology that should produce about 1 million liters per year. The province has invested $500,000 to help set up the demo plant. Nova Scotia Power is also moving […]
In Indiana, high school students now have the opportunity to make soy biodiesel from the vegetable oil found on grocery store shelves right in their science classrooms, thanks to the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA). The Soy Biodiesel Chemistry Kit was developed by Purdue University researchers and education professionals through funding from ISA, the Indiana soybean […]
In Michigan, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a visit to Michigan State University, announced $10 million in research grants to spur production of bioenergy and biobased products. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded the grants through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). which supports work in six priority areas: plant health […]
In Germany, researchers from UFZ, Technical University of Dresden) , the University of Stockholm, the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, and Leibniz University Hannover have refuted the thesis that organic components of the soil are comprised mostly of decomposed plant material which is directly converted to humic substances. Instead, the team found that 40 […]
In Malaysia, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) has completed a 6000 Jarak Pagar (Jatropa Curcas) tree pilot project, dating back to 2009, and the agency said it is ready to proceed to commercial scale. FRIM said it will grow jatropha on land obtained from the Terengganu state government — the state, official told […]
