In Massachusetts, New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) has issued a report warning that food prices may skyrocket this year because of the drought coupled with ethanol mandates across the globe. The report indicated that food prices may rise to the heights seen in 2008, when food riots broke out across the globe. “Reducing the […]
In New York State, scientists at Cornell University now believe commercialization of shrub willow as a biofuel feedstock could be years closer than they believed. A new $1.37 million grant is set to enable Cornell researchers to take advantage of the newly mapped shrub willow genome to study hybrid vigor and yield. “Determining the precise […]
In Germany, a joint publication of the Friedrich Schiller University and the Max Planck Institute of Economics looks at uncertainties about the GHG Emissions Saving of Rapeseed Biodiesel and tears apart associated assumptions made by the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive.
In California, researchers from Stanford and Pennsylvania State universities say microbes that convert electricity into methane gas could become an important source of renewable energy. Researchers at both campuses are raising colonies of microorganisms, called methanogens, which have the remarkable ability to turn electrical energy into pure methane.
In Wisconsin, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been awarded a $7 million grant along with its partners to ethanol from a manure byproduct at a dairy farm. Maple Leaf Dairy has about 4,000 cows. Manure will be broken down to make bedding, fertilizer pellets and biofuels.
In Alabama, Professor Sushil Ahikari, assistant professor of biosystems engineering at Auburn University received a $335,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct a bioenergy research study, focusing on biomass gasification. His research will set up a program called Research Exerpeinces for Undergraduates, allowing 10 students from research universities to spend 10 weeks on […]
In the UK, a study indicates that algae could become a more efficient if engineers note the biological changes in the way the cells absorb light, observed by scientists at the University of London. Their research, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that the biological switch happening in blue-green […]
In Spain, researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s Institute for Automobile Research have released a new study that shows how using biodiesel can help reduce GHG emissions in urban transport systems by integrating the fuel’s use into city buses. The study looked specifically at selective catalytic reduction with urea (SCR+urea) and the recirculation of […]
In California, iDiverse announced that it has discovered a yeast gene that when inserted into yeast and properly modulated can increase ethanol production yield by up to 34%. “The gene functions by protecting the yeast against some of the lethal stresses encountered in the bioproduction process,” said John Serbin, Chief Business Officer at iDiverse. “In […]
In Spain, researchers at the University of Murcia are producing biodiesel in a single step using green chemistry, meaning with the use of biocatalysts and green solvents such as ionic liquids and CO2. The production process takes places in a steel column while the vegetable oil, CO2 and methanol are supplied from high pressure tanks […]
