In Wisconsin, a new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin shows that crop expansion in the US between 2008 and 2012 emitted 115 million tons of CO2 and that much of that can be attributed to biofuels because it was during a period of policy-driven biofuel production increase. The paper says that the […]
In Brazil, the director of the Center for Research and Development of Soils and Environmental Resources at the Agronomic Institute of Campinas has been awarded the Norman Borlaug Award on World Fertilizer Day by the International Fertilizers Association for developing a method of sugarcane cultivation that reduces GHG emissions. The method integrates urease inhibitors that […]
In California, a new study led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), demonstrates the importance of microbial communities as a source of stable enzymes that could be used to convert plants to biofuels. The study, recently published in the journal Nature Microbiology, […]
In Finland, micro-organisms found in the wildfire-prone dry tropical forests of India are an exciting prospect for biochemical production, as they are accustomed to the challenging conditions following a forest fire. The enzymes they produce are likely to also have a higher-than-normal resistance to the substances released from biomass in high-temperature industrial processes. An EU and […]
In Tennessee, researchers from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have received a $225,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin a three-year project to perform a multitude of techno-market analyses of U.S. biorefinery supply chains from feedstock to alternative jet fuels. This research is part of the Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT) project—a […]
In Illinois, NASA and challenge partner Bradley University opened Phase 3 of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge for registration. The Centennial Challenges competition is seeking ways to create or develop the technologies needed to create such habitats on-site, and challenges citizen inventors to lead the way. The 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge is divided into phases. The Phase 1: Design Competition […]
In Colorado, DMC Biotechnologies was awarded a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant for $600,000 to commercialize their proprietary high throughput metabolic engineering platform that enables the rapid development of microbial hosts for the production of a broad diversity of bio-based products. The comapny also recently picked up a National Institute […]
In California, Sandia National Laboratories-led team has demonstrated faster, more efficient ways to turn discarded plant matter into chemicals worth billions. The team’s findings could help transform the economics of making fuels and other products from domestically grown renewable sources. The team’s first new conversion method is a multi-stage process that begins by pre-treating lignin […]
In Minnesota, coal fueled the Industrial Revolution, but it took eons to form. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota-Duluth has introduced what might be called “instant coal”: an energy-dense biofuel made from wood and agricultural waste in the Natural Resources Research Institute’s (NRRI) Renewable Energy Lab. The new biofuel’s vital statistics […]
In India, researchers developed a comprehensive database of known enzymes with proven or potential applications in biofuel production through text mining of PubMed abstracts and other publicly available information. A total of 131 enzymes with a role in biofuel production were identified and classified into six enzyme classes and four broad application categories namely ‘Alcohol […]
