In New York state, biochemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered two ways that autophagy, or self-eating, controls the levels of oils in plant cells. The study, published in The Plant Cell on April 29, 2019, describes how this cannibalistic-sounding process actually helps plants survive. It also provides mechanistic details […]
In Spain, the EU-funded project A-LEAF is working towards a system that will use sunlight directly to transform waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable chemical fuels using a clean, fast and cost-effective process. The researchers are developing a device that replicates the natural process of photosynthesis carried out by green plants to store energy. The […]
In Germany, a research team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum has shown that operation in an oxygen-free environment significantly prolongs the life of the bioelectrode. “In order to generate energy sustainably and efficiently, we must not only understand but also overcome the processes that limit the lifetime of renewable energy conversion technologies,” says Wolfgang Schuhmann. The use […]
In Nebraska, a tiny invader’s gooey march through U.S. sorghum fields continues to devastate crop yields, forcing some farmers out of the sorghum business despite the crop’s increasing importance. A University of Nebraska–Lincoln entomologist is investigating ways to help sorghum naturally resist sugarcane aphids, the crop’s most damaging pest in the United States. Louis earned a […]
In Illinois, University of Illinois chemical engineers have assessed the technical and economic feasibility of a new electrolysis technology that uses a cheap biofuel byproduct to reduce the energy consumption of the waste-to-value process by 53 percent. The new findings are published in the journal Nature Energy. The new study proposes glycerol—an organic byproduct of […]
In Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists have developed a sustainable way to demonstrate a new genetic modification that can increase the yield of natural oil in seeds by up to 15 per cent in laboratory conditions. The new method can be applied to crops such as canola, soybean and sunflower, which are […]
In North Carolina, engineers at Duke University are developing a smart robotic system for sniffing out pollution hotspots and sources of toxic leaks. Their approach enables a robot to incorporate complex calculations of airflows in confined spaces made on the fly, rather than simply guide the robot to ‘follow its nose’. Their approach combines physics-based […]
In Singapore, Nanyang Technological University scientists developed a sustainable way to demonstrate a new genetic modification that can increase the yield of natural oil in seeds by up to 15 per cent in laboratory conditions. The new method can be applied to crops such as canola, soybean and sunflower, which are in a multi-billion dollar […]
In Massachusetts, taking a step closer to a “green” replacement for fossil fuels, a research team that includes a chemical engineer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has developed a novel process using an unusual solvent and an exotic microorganism that may make it possible to manufacture isobutanol and other biofuels more economically. In a paper […]
In Ireland, NUI Galway has officially launched a new research laboratory, featuring the latest analytical equipment to characterize biofuels produced from organic waste as well as the microbial communities which produce these fuels. Professor Piet Lens will lead a team of 25 PhD and post-doctoral researchers in the Department of Microbiology at NUI Galway, which […]
