In Japan, researchers at Japan’s Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute found a way to produce an alcoholic drink made from wood and hope to have their “wood alcohol” on shelves within three years. Using similar wood fermentation as what is used to produce biofuel, they were able to remove toxins and make it flavorful. […]
In Finland, a research group from the University of Turku, Finland, has discovered an efficient way for transforming solar energy into the chemical energy of biohydrogen through the photosynthesis of green algae that function as cell factories. The researchers at the University of Turku decided to apply the knowledge retrieved from the basic research on […]
In Pennsylvania, researchers at Penn State have identified the major steps in the process as well as the tools used by plant cells to create cellulose, including proteins that transport critical components to the location where cellulose is made. A paper describing the study appears online the week of March 26, in the journal Proceedings of […]
In Brazil, important knowledge of the different biological mechanisms behind the control and production of hydrolytic enzymes specifically by fungi has been garnered by a group of researchers at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, partnering with colleagues from the National Bioethanol Science & Technology Laboratory (CTBE), which belongs to the […]
In the UK, researchers in the Schools of Biochemistry and Chemistry at the University of Bristol are working to boost cellular productivity of biofuels at a fundamentally scientific level in order to create innovative, sustainable solutions. Collaborating with scientists from the University of Kent and Queen Mary London, the research team has developed a new […]
In Ireland, University of Ireland researchers were able to produce caproate, a precurser molecule to form oil-based products, from food waste, using microbes as a way to convert the food waste to an energy source. The team collected food waste from a local restaurant and used the organic material in an anaerobic system. They removed […]
In Mexico, researchers from the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research are making headway on the production of biodiesel from pine nuts with three high oil yielding varieties have been selected from clones sourced from the national germplasm bank. The three varieties will be promoted to farmers seeking to develop pine plantations where […]
In Germany, an EU project developed innovative nanocatalysts to create an integrated modular and highly efficient process for producing fuels from renewable energy sources. Fifteen partners across eight countries joined efforts in the EU-funded project BIOGO-FOR-PRODUCTION to radically transform production processes and realize these essential improvements. The project focused on developing an integrated, coherent and […]
In California, researchers at Stanford and other institutions have found new hope for cost-effective carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Their study, published April 23 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, runs the numbers on different options for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the U.S. and finds opportunities where it is not […]
In North Carolina, new systems biology model that mimics the process of wood formation allows scientists to predict the effects of switching on and off 21 pathway genes involved in producing lignin, a primary component of wood. The model, built on more than three decades of research led by Vincent Chiang of the Forest Biotechnology […]
