In Colorado, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has conducted its first B20 quality survey conducted in which the samples were held against ASTM D7467, the B6 to B20 blend specifications and with good results. Samples were taken from retail outlets during the December 2009/January 2010 timeframe, and 75% of them were obtained from regions NREL […]
In New York, Rochester Institute of Technology researchers are working on using wastewater to grow algae for biodiesel. The process cleans wastewater by consuming nitrates and phosphates while reducing both bacteria and toxins in the water. The algae can then be used to produce biodiesel. The researchers are Jeff Lodge, associate professor of biological sciences […]
In Illinois, a new study from the University of Illinois shows that between 600 and 900 million metric tons of biomass—including that grown land currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program— could be produced in 2030 at a price of $140 per metric ton (in 2007 dollars) while still meeting demand for food with current […]
In Illinois, Chromatin announced that its sorghum hybrids outperformed biomass sorghum and sweet sorghum hybrids from public, private, and commercial sorghum collections. A number of Chromatin’s sorghum materials generated more fermentable sugar per acre than most of the competitors. “These tests show that our biomass has a combination of qualities that are high priority for […]
Waste Management has released its 2010 corporate sustainability report, “From Waste to Resources,” as part of its commitment to report progress on the company’s environmental performance. Among the 2020 goals set by WM are to double waste-based energy production, and to triple the volume of recyclables to more than 20 million tons. More on the […]
In Brazil, UNICA is reporting that overall crushing in the 2010/2011 sugarcane harvest in South-Central Brazil has reached 556.19 million tons, an year-on-year increase of 2.63%. Sugar production increased 16.86%, while ethanol production is up 7% to 6.7 billion gallons ( 25.34 billion liters). Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, Technical Director at UNICA, said that production […]
In Montana, Chengci Chen, a Montana State University associate professor of cropping systems, is working on testing camelina, pea and lentil as possible crop rotations for winter wheat at the Central Agriculture Research Station near Moccasin.. Chen noted that with the USDA requirement that next generation biofuels must be sourced from non food crops and […]
In Norway, controlled experiments with irrigation and fertilisation of jatropha have been conducted at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is an institute in Niger under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). In this project, studies and field trials were conducted with jatropha in Ghana […]
In Illinois, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have modified the expression of three genes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is used in the fermenation process to break down sugars to ethanol, in order to improve the way seaweed sugars can be converted to ethanol. Yong-Su Jin, one of the study’s authors […]
In Germany, researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) Department of Microbiology are studying Clostridium thermocellum for use in cellulosic ethanol production. This soil bacterium has altogether over 70 enzymes that it uses to degrade different parts of plant cell walls. Depending on whether it lives in straw, leaves or waste wood, C. thermocellum produces […]
