In Michigan, with $2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, University of Michigan researchers aim to make the long-touted promise of algae as a biofuel source for diesel engines into a reality. Their goal: create biofuels that work with existing diesel engines and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent, compared with normal diesel […]
In Australia, researchers from the University of Melbourne show how plant walls could be manipulated in the future to change the way we produce biofuels, bioplastics and other biomaterials. In particular, understanding how to control the production of flexible primary walls, which support cell growth, has been an important goal for biologists. The sugar-based polymers […]
In New Jersey, green algae that evolved to tolerate hostile and fluctuating conditions in salt marshes and inland salt flats are expected to survive climate change, thanks to hardy genes they stole from bacteria, according to a Rutgers-led study. These Picochlorum single-celled species of green algae provide clues to how nature can modify genomes, and […]
In Russia, pyrolysis can be organized automatically for heat generation out of the most common type of biomass such as peat and straw. That is, it is sufficient to heat biomass to a certain temperature and then the process proceeds in the autothermal mode due to its own heat release. This technology was studied by […]
In Washington, researchers at Washington State University developed an implantable, biofuel-powered sensor that runs on sugar and can monitor a body’s biological signals to detect, prevent and diagnose diseases. A cross-disciplinary research team led by Subhanshu Gupta, assistant professor in WSU’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, developed the unique sensor, which, enabled by […]
In Iowa, a new study by researchers at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University reveals the impacts that current trade disruptions are having on Iowa’s economy. The CARD study calculated that Iowa’s soybean industry faces losing between $159 million and $891 million. The state’s corn industry may lose between […]
In Michigan, Michigan State University scientists found a solution using two species of marine algae and soil fungi to enhance oil production and harvest using what many consider sea sludge. The new proof of concept is a biofuel production platform that lowers cultivation and harvesting costs and increases productivity. The species of alga, Nannochloropsis oceanica, […]
In France, researchers from the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development worked on sequencing and assembling fragments of sugarcane chromosomes into the first monoploid reference of the gene-rich part of the sugarcane genome. The project was part of a proposal by the DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute. “Their approach relied in part on having a […]
In Tennessee, chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated a practical, energy-efficient method of capturing carbon dioxide directly from air. If deployed at large scale and coupled to geologic storage, the technique may bolster the portfolio of responses to global climate change. “Negative emissions technologies—for net removal of greenhouse gases […]
In Michigan, researchers from Michigan Technological University, University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University are looking at Wisconsin switchgrass to better understand the costs and benefits to harvesting at various points in the season. Comparing data from samples collected every two to three weeks from the switchgrass fields against biofuel yield data […]
