In California, in creating fuels from the woody materials of plants – the most abundant source of biomass on earth – scientists must separate the desirable sugars from byproduct chemicals including toxins. A team from the University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University, and Hokkaido University discovered a honeycomb-like structure called NU-1000 that selectively adsorbs […]
In Japan, a research group led by Associate Professor ASHIDA Hiroki (Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University), Academic Researcher KONO Takunari (Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University), and Professor MATSUMURA Hiroyoshi (Ritsumeikan University) has discovered an evolutionary model for the biological function that creates CO2 from glucose in photosynthesis. […]
In China, PolyU researchers have thus adopted precise surface chemistry engineering to develop a new class of solid catalyst for use in biodiesel production. This new catalyst for green biodiesel can be synthesized in one step from low-grade unrefined feedstock such as waste cooking oil, with no aqueous treatment steps required. Ethanol or propanol extracted […]
In the Netherlands, the European Commission awarded a grant to DuPont Industrial Biosciences to demonstrate high-efficiency enzyme production to increase biogas yields as part of the DEMETER project, funded from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program. Enzyme technology has been proven to improve biogas yields […]
In Massachusetts, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working with torrefaction to help small farmers be able to use the technology to produce fuel. Their project is a reactor that uses torrefaction to densify biomass, making it transportable and increasing its shelf life. Torrefaction technology has been used at the industrial scale for […]
In Montana, a Montana State University scientist has received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. DOE’s Office of Science to research ways to improve the usefulness of camelina, an ancient crop that the modern world has come to value as a potential source of alternative fuel. The project was one of seven totaling $7.8 […]
In the UK, Roberto Rinaldi FRSC, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London has been awarded a highly prestigious EUR2 million European Research Council Consolidator Grant to fund his world-leading work on lignin valorization. These highly competitive grants are awarded to outstanding early career researchers to help them consolidate […]
In the UK, researchers at the University of Manchester have developed a new method for breaking down cellulose into sugars that they claim is significantly cheaper and faster through the use of a certain fungus in conjunction with enzymes to help jumpstart the process. The method eliminates the need for expensive and time-consuming chemical pre-treatment […]
In Massachusetts, microbiologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have discovered a new type of natural wire produced by bacteria that could greatly accelerate the researchers’ goal of developing sustainable “green” conducting materials for the electronics industry. The study by Derek Lovley and colleagues appears this week in mBio, the American Society […]
In Massachusetts, MIT engineers have genetically reprogrammed a strain of yeast so that it converts sugars to fats much more efficiently, an advance that could make possible the renewable production of high-energy fuels such as diesel. The researchers modified the metabolic pathways of yeast that naturally produce large quantities of lipids, to make them about […]
