In Texas, the School of Science, Engineering and Technology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio is launching a new Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics. Students can enroll in the program in Fall 2019. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary and growing field in science for solving biological, biomedical and biochemical problems by incorporating elements of computer […]
In Washington, D.C., the Algae Biomass Organization reports that Congress has just begun to develop more programs that can give their efforts a boost. One that will be of interest to algae cultivators, product developers and researchers is the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AGARDA), a new program created in the 2019 Farm Bill […]
In Australia, Southern Oil is trialing the production of renewable diesel fuel made from plastic waste, old tires, agriculture and forestry waste and biosolids, for up to 18 months. The trials will use the fuel for heavy machinery, trucks and marine engines and will lead to a new fuel refinery being constructed within the next […]
In Norway, waste fuels and resource management company Geminor acquired the Norwegian biofuel producer Bøn Biobrensel AS, strengthening its position in the Nordic secondary fuels market. The acquisition means that Geminor doubles its capacity in the production of wood chips for fuel in waste-to-energy facilities. Geminor is currently England’s biggest exporter and Norway’s biggest importer […]
Biobased solvents are on the rise with more demand for them now than ever before. What used to be an alternative to petroleum-based solvents, biosolvents are now looked at as an environmental win-win as well as a win for better performance and safety with lower toxicity issues. Just recently, United Kingdom based Circa Group’s biobased […]
In Washington, Reuters reports that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to improve transparency in the RIN market including publicizing large volume trades, prohibiting speculators such as banks and other financial institutions from participating in the market and improving overall price transparency. The plan to eliminate hoarding of RINs would see the EPA publish any time […]
In California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have 3D printed live cells that convert glucose to ethanol and carbon dioxide gas (CO2), a substance that resembles beer, demonstrating a technology that can lead to high biocatalytic efficiency. Bioprinting living mammalian cells into complex 3D scaffolds has been widely studied and demonstrated for applications ranging from […]
In Russia, the Tass news agency reports that local company CosmoCourse plans to use ethanol to fuel its tourist space vehicles. With flights ready to take passengers by 2025, they should expect to experience up to five minutes of zero gravity. High taxes on ethanol have kept ethanol from being commercialized as a fuel but […]
In South Korea, Reuters reports that as of March 15 utilities will be able to replace fuel oil with biofuel oil to produce electricity following a delay in formalities that originally saw the biofuel coming into the power matrix on January 1. The majority of the country’s power comes from coal and nuclear sources, however, […]
In India, the IANS news agency reports that the cabinet has approved yet another round of soft loans for sugar mills so they may invest in ethanol production capacity. The government will provide $397.4 million as an interest subsidy that will allow banks to loan out a further $1.8 billion in soft loans to facilitate […]
