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 […]
In the UK, the Telegraph reports that Kew Gardens researchers and an international team from 18 countries have discovered Aspergillus tubingensis can break down plastic in weeks rather than decades using its mycelia. The fungi was found in a Pakistani trash dump by Chinese scientists last year. The discovery was part of a larger publication […]
In Illinois, a University of Illinois crop scientist will lead a team of researchers on a five-year study of new crops that could contribute to the production of affordable, sustainable sources for market-ready fuels and other valuable products. They were awarded $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a study titled “Next-Generation […]
In Switzerland, EPFL researchers have developed a chemical method that stabilizes simple sugars and prevents them from being degraded. This method could mean that chemists no longer have to balance deconstruction of the plant with avoiding degradation of the product. The new method changes the chemical susceptibility of the sugars to dehydration and degradation by […]
In Germany, an international team of researchers has developed a new mechanism to protect enzymes from oxygen as biocatalysts in fuel cells. The enzymes, known as hydrogenases, are just as efficient as precious metal catalysts, but unstable when they come into contact with oxygen. They are therefore not yet suitable for technological applications. The new […]
In Minnesota, a team of energy researchers from the University of Minnesota and University of Massachusetts Amherst discovered that molecular motion can be predicted with high accuracy when confining molecules in small nanocages. Their theoretical method is suitable for screening millions of possible nanomaterials and could improve production of fuels and chemicals, including biofuels and […]
