In Illinois, researchers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are engineering sugarcane plants, called lipidcane, to produce more oil as well as sugar. Growing lipidcane containing 20 percent oil would be five times more profitable per acre than soybeans, the main feedstock currently used to make biodiesel in the United States, and twice as profitable […]
In Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) announced the 20 semi-finalists for Ontario’s Solutions 2030 Challenge – a global call for innovators to propose solutions to help Ontario industry reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution. The initiative is part of the broader TargetGHG program, which is delivered by OCE on behalf of the Ministry of Research, […]
In California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been awarded a 3 year $1.5 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to improve the growth and efficiency of biofuel-producing algae through the alteration of their microbiomes. LLNL will partner with San Francisco based General Automation Lab Technologies (GALT) in the use of a novel high-throughput […]
In India, Bharat Petroleum Corporation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology to create a biofuel chair in an effort to boost research in second-generation biofuels to support the company’s development of a 2G ethanol plant agricultural waste in the state. The chair is to determine the best agricultural […]
In Qatar, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment launched a project to produce biogas from wastes with Qatar University’s College of Engineering with the goal of using that biogas as a clean energy to power the motor vehicles. The project will study various techniques for producing biogas from waste and aims to convert vehicles from […]
In Massachusetts, findings from a new study reveal some of the basic tools used by a specific microbe to break down lignocellulose. This work provides insight into how industrial processes might achieve degradation during biofuel production, and how side processes such as hydrogen production might be harnessed as well. One candidate species that can use […]
In Kenya, small-holder farmers in Kenya have the capacity and desire to play a major role in the scale-up of biofuel production from agroforestry, according to a Penn State forest economist, who led a study in the East African country. Through the production of oil for energy and co-products, such as animal feed and organic […]
In Germany, scientists have developed a bioprocess that enables conversion of acid whey, a dairy by-product, without the use of additional chemicals. Researchers from the Center of Applied Geosciences at the University of Tübingen and international colleagues used microbiome cultures similar to those in the human gut. The new bio-oil can be used in animal […]
In Washington state, a University of Washington team is trying to make poplar a viable competitor by testing the production of younger poplar trees that could be harvested more frequently — after only two or three years — instead of the usual 10- to 20-year cycle. The team is the first to try converting the […]
In Colorado, the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) established a novel catalytic method to produce renewable acrylonitrile using 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP), which can be biologically produced from sugars. This hybrid biological-catalytic process offers an alternative to the conventional petrochemical production method and achieves unprecedented acrylonitrile yields. Researchers were able to achieve a 98% […]
