In Massachusetts, ARPA-E chief Arun Majumdar recently highlighted Agrivida’s biofuels technology, stating that “They take the gene sequences that produce enzymes and put them in the plant itself, so when the plant grows, it produces the enzymes free of cost.” Agrivida’s research is focused on mechanisms to “switch off” the enzymes during the plant’s growth […]
In Washington, Scientists with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service have found that barley grain can be used to produce ethanol, and the leftover byproducts-barley straw, hulls, and dried distillers grains (DDGS)-can be used to produce an energy-rich oil called bio-oil. The bio-oil could then be used either for transportation fuels or for producing heat and power […]
In Wisconsin, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have genetically altered yeast cells to survive higher ethanol concentrations, addressing a bottleneck in the production of ethanol from cellulosic material in quantities that could make it economically competitive with fossil fuels. They concluded that many wild strains of yeast respond to ethanol much differently than do […]
In Texas, students at the Lone Star College-Montgomery Biotechnology Institute are collaborating with the National Algae Association in developing a commercial-scale algae photobioreactor. Twenty students are working on the project, which will produce biodiesel, and the students are currently testing 25 strains of algae for performance. More on the story.
In Kentucky, a long-standing switchgrass trialing and research project from the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council and University of Kentucky Plant and Soil Science Department is drawing to a close, but the East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which partnered in the project, is expected to continue burning switchgrass for power generation. EKPC officvials said that they […]
In Illinois, Yong-Su Jin, a University of Illinois faculty member and assistant professor of microbial genomics at the Institute For Genomic Biology has developed a strain of yeast capable of fermenting galactose from red seaweed. Jin stated, “… making biofuels from red seaweed has been problematic because the process yields both glucose and galactose, and […]
In Brussels, the European Commission granted $34.4 million (SEK 222 million) under EU state aid rules to Sweden to support the Gothenburg Biofuels Gasification (GoBiGas) research and development (R&D) project. Göteborg Energi AB, a Swedish energy company, will manage the project, which will be carried out by its subsidiary, GoBiGas AB. The 10-year project aims […]
In Indiana, a researcher says that focus on waste-to-ethanol technology is a waste of local resources because the process produces an inferior fuel. John Regalbuto, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former researcher and adviser for the National Science Foundation, said given various limitations of trash and the […]
In Germany, Bayer CropScience AG and Evogene have entered into a five-year collaboration to accelerate the development and introduction of improved wheat varieties. Improvements will be pursued for wheat yield, drought tolerance, fertilizer use efficiency and certain other wheat traits utilizing a combination of advanced breeding and state of the art genetic modification methods. Bayer […]
In Texas, CABI and Hart Energy Consulting have released Biofuels and Land Use Change: A Science and Policy Review, which reviews key research that has been conducted on the subject and analyses where the gaps in knowledge lie. Marginal, abandoned, degraded and unused lands are really the only possible sources of significant land for biofuel […]
