In Hawai’i, the Center for Microbial Oceanography officially opened at the University of Hawaii Manoa, with 10-year budget of up to $90 million from the University of Hawaii, the National Science Foundation, and grants from private foundations. The Center will focus on the study of marine microbes, algal biofuels and ocean thermal energy production. Thermal […]
In California, iDiverse announced that it has successfully modified yeast to be highly resistant to a number of lethal stresses normally encountered in the bioproduction of fuel ethanol. In doing so, iDiverse has enabled the yeast to generate significantly more ethanol. The technology keeps cells alive in extreme conditions like those found in biofuel production […]
In Georgia, in a study published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, a team from Georgia Tech determined that Algenol’s algae-to-ethanol technology produces fuel with greenhouse gas emissions between 67% and 87% less than gasoline, depending on whether CO2 is sourced from fossil fuels or from and industrial source. More on the story.
In Rhode Island, researchers at Brown University have developed a process to produce biodiesel from WVO in a single reaction, by switching to bismuth triflate and scandium triflate catalysts and utilizing a microwave reactor. Traditionally, sulfuric aicid is used as a catalyst for free fatty acids while potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide are used as […]
In Tennessee, a study by the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found that “minimal to zero indirect land use change was induced by use of corn for ethanol over the last decade,” based on an analysis of empirical data between 2001 and 2008. The review of the data found that feedstock for ethanol expansion […]
In China, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Tianjin University published a study on the use of a diesel engine with fumigation ethanol. With this kind of dual fuel engine, the diesel is injected directly into the engine, while the alcohol fuel, in this case ethanol, is mixed with air and then injected. The […]
In the UK, a researcher from the University of Sheffield has won the Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation for the development of a “microbubble device” that promises to make biofuel production more energy efficient. The new method uses a special air-lift loop bioreactor that creates microbubbles using 18% less energy consumption than existing […]
In Iowa, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association asked KCCI News for equal time, after KCCI aired “a one-sided hit piece on E15 that made a number of misleading statements.” In addition, there is a survey offered at this link that asks the following question: Will you buy the new 15 percent ethanol blend if […]
VB Research is reporting that global venture capital and private equity investment in clean energy companies declined by 20% in Q3 to $4.6 billion, and that China has now surpassed the US in terms of total investment flow with $12.1 billion invested this quarter. Overall project finance activity totaling $37.1 billion during 3Q10. Among winners, […]
In Massachusetts, Shell announced an agreement to fund $25 million in energy R&D with MIT’s Energy Initiative over a five-year period. The research collaboration will fund a suite of projects at $5 million per year for the coming five years, focusing on advanced modeling, earth science, biofuels, nanotechnology and carbon management. Shell’s chief technology officer, […]
