In Massachusetts, Greater Lawrence Technical School received a $160,000 grant from the Baker-Polito Administration to implement a clean energy program as part of their STEAM curriculum. GLTS is one of just three schools statewide to receive the allocation from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which will be used to prepare students to pursue higher education majors and careers in […]
In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) officially launched the Lab Partnering Service (LPS), an on-line, single access point platform for investors, innovators, and institutions to identify, locate, and obtain information from DOE’s 17 national laboratories. This tool will provide industry with a more efficient way to harness technical expertise and intellectual property housed […]
In Japan, new IIASA-led research has found that a single climate mitigation scheme applied to all sectors, such as a global carbon tax, could have a serious impact on agriculture and result in far more widespread hunger and food insecurity than the direct impacts of climate change. Smarter, more inclusive policies are needed instead. The […]
In Brazil, Reuters reports that the local biofuel industry is sure second-generation ethanol has overcome much of its technical challenges and is now competitive with oil at $70 per barrel. Novozymes indicated that the Raizen cellulosic ethanol plant demonstrated that these glitches had been overcome at commercial scale, producing 40 million liters per year. The […]
In India, a new study conducted by researchers at Dayalbagh Educational Institute looked at the different pretreatment methods for lignocellulosic wastes for biofuels, including physical, chemical, physico-chemical, biological and combined pretreatments. It has been shown that combined pretreatments are more effective as compared to single pretreatment and there is an extensive scope of combinations which […]
In the UK, researchers from Lancaster University have analyzed global and regional food supplies to reveal the flows of calories, protein and vital micro-nutrients from production through to human consumption, in a study published in Elementa, Science of the Anthropocene. Combining data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with food nutrient data, and […]
In Illinois, named for the mythical god with two faces, Janus membranes — double-sided membranes that serve as gatekeepers between two substances — have emerged as a material with potential industrial uses. Creating two distinct “faces” on these delicate surfaces, however, is a process fraught with challenges. By applying a common high-tech manufacturing technique in […]
In India, ICRISAT researchers have found that sorghum could be used in existing sugarcane mills to produce ethanol and co-generated power without having to make any adaptations, allowing farmers and mills to switch to the more water efficient crop. Field trials with 10,000 farmers in Telegana using in-field crushing supplied juice to ethanol distilleries and […]
In the UK, scientists have designed a type of translator that allows different types of bacteria to ‘talk’ to each other. The findings, from scientists at Imperial College London, allow bacteria that don’t usually live together – such as those that normally live on the skin, and those that live in the sea, to communicate. […]
In Washington, D.C., an international research team, including scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), discovered and characterized a new family of cytochrome P450 enzymes that is critical to improving the conversion of lignin into valuable products such as nylon, plastics, and chemicals. The study outlines how the international team […]
