In Germany, project greenGain, which was funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union, completed their study of herbaceous and woody biomass from landscape conservation and maintenance work (LCMW) for energy production as an alternative to the cultivation of energy plants that can compete for food or nature conservation. The project showed […]
In Kenya, new research from the Stockholm Environment Institute looks at mechanisms and indicators for assessing the impact of biofuel feedstock production on ecosystem services. Biofuel feedstock production can be a significant driver of landscape modification, ecosystem change, and biodiversity loss. There is a growing body of literature that shows how biofuel landscapes provide various […]
In Germany, University of Rostock researchers demonstrates in current research results that off-road engines conforming to exhaust emission category EU Stage IV are suitable for operation with pure biodiesel. The research project at the University of Rostock shows the suitability of B100 at an EU Stage IV engine for industry and agriculture. Special attention was […]
In Wisconsin, building on the success of 10 years of investigation into the production of renewable fuels from plants, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, recently embarked on a new mission: to develop sustainable alternatives to transportation fuels and products currently derived from petroleum. On Feb. 18 at […]
In the UK, an international team of researchers, including scientists from the University of York, has discovered a set of enzymes found in fungi that are capable of breaking down one of the main components of wood. The enzymes could now potentially be used to sustainably convert wood biomass into valuable chemical commodities such as […]
In Washington, DC, the U.S. Energy Department released two studies from the Co-Optimization of Engines & Fuels initiative. The study, Fuel Blendstocks with the Potential to Optimize Future Gasoline Engine Performance, identifies eight representative high-octane blendstocks across five chemical groups that could be blended into gasoline for better performance. These new blendstocks, co-optimized with advanced […]
In Sweden, researchers from Karolinska Institutet have developed a quick and non-destructive method to map the carbohydrates of plant matter. By making composition analysis more easy and accessible, this method will help to understand where inefficiencies lie in many processes from paper recycling to the production of biofuel and will eventually lead to less waste […]
In Georgia, a research team led by the University of Georgia has discovered that manipulation of the same gene in poplar trees and switchgrass produced plants that grow better and are more efficiently converted to biofuels. In a paper published recently in Nature Biotechnology, the researchers report that reducing the activity of a specific gene […]
In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office published the results of last year’s Peer Review. The 2017 Project Peer Review Report contains project and technology area recommendations on the focus, management, and impact of the projects in each technology area, as well as project investigators’, technology area managers’, and BETO leadership’s responses to reviewer recommendations. […]
In Denmark, researchers from the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, have developed a patented technology which uses lactic acid bacteria to efficiently convert lactose in the whey into ethanol. Ethanol is the type of alcohol that is found in spirits. The researchers have formed the company Alcowhey, which aims to help smaller dairies […]
