In Michigan, a new study from Michigan State University analyzing crop area, commodity exports and land use since 2007 shows there is no link between biofuel expansion and Indirect Land Use Change—or at the most, very negligible. The study shows that additional demand for biofuels was made up by production efficiencies and not by additional […]
In Washington state, the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory at Washington State University Tri-Cities is working on a $1.5 million DOE-funded pilot project to test the BioChemCat process for turning agricultural waste into fuel. Teamed with the Port of Benton, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and startup company Clean-Vantage, the project may be tested with wheat […]
In Texas, students at Texas A&M’s Agrilife Research Center have created a system that feeds nutrients from shrimp production into saliconia plants that are later harvested and pressed into oil for biodiesel. The meal byproduct is then fed back to the shrimp for feed.
In Washington, the National Biodiesel Board is highlighting the significant health and air quality improvements from blending biodiesel with petroleum diesel, as Congress continues to look at supports for the biofuels industry in this budget-slashing year. “According to the EPA,” the NBB said, “biodiesel has the following emissions properties compared with petroleum diesel: Carbon Monoxide […]
In California, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced that Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers have found a way to help microbes survive the toxicity caused by the very compounds that they secrete in order to produce biofuels. Many of the best candidate compounds for advanced biofuels are toxic to microbes, which presents a “production versus survival” […]
In California, Sustainable Oils is working with the University of California Westside Research and Extension Center near Five Points in hopes of encouraging farmers to plant camelina in western Fresno County. Over the past few years more than 100,000 acres of farmlands have been idled in the Westlands Water District but as many as 60,000 […]
In California, researchers at the DOE’s Joint Genome Institute have mapped a small plant that resembles Christmas trees and known as spikemoss in an effort to understand how this ancient plant developed its lignin—differently than other plants currently used for biofuel production—that may lead to understanding how to manipulate plants so their lignin can be […]
In Washington and in Iowa, two competing studies looking at the economics behind ethanol blending are painting very different pictures. A study by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University funded by the Renewable Fuels Association says ethanol blending has lowered pump prices by 25 cents per gallon on average […]
In California, “How many New York Times readers would know that global biofuels production is 12 times higher than global wind?” on a BTU basis, asks a Digest reader, even allowing for energy consumed in the production of energy crops and fuels. It’s true: looking at figures from international authorities, production from ethanol, renewable diesel, […]
In Washington state, researchers from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced that lignin-modified Eucalyptus trees developed by ArborGen releases more than twice the usual amount of sugar, making it a promising option as a biomass feedstock for liquid fuel. Using plant biotechnology the modifications were made at two points in the lignin biosynthetic pathway, […]
