In Israel, Evogene is looking beyond its traditional research areas of plant genomics and will now look at bacteria genomics as well in hopes of unlocking resistance to pests. The idea is take a different tack as creating pest resistance in plants that doesn’t lead to increased pest resistance to those methods as they mutate. […]
In Indiana, scientists at Indiana University have created a highly efficient biomaterial that catalyzes the formation of hydrogen—one half of the “holy grail” of splitting H2O to make hydrogen and oxygen for fueling cheap and efficient cars that run on water. A modified enzyme that gains strength from being protected within the protein shell—or “capsid”—of […]
In Colorado, NREL researchers have discovered that a metabolic pathway previously only suggested to be functional in photosynthetic organisms is actually a major pathway and can enable efficient conversion of carbon dioxide to organic compounds. NREL scientists engineered a cyanobacterium, Synechocystis, that is unable to store carbon as glycogen into a strain that could metabolize […]
In Germany, an international consortium led by Autodisplay Biotech GmbH has started PATHWAY EFB, a €1.6 million collaborative R&D project to significantly lower cellulase cost in the production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals. The project builds onto Autodisplay Biotech’s proprietary cell surface display technology which enables a low-cost recovery and re-use of cellulases after the […]
In Germany, an international consortium led by Autodisplay Biotech GmbH started Pathway EFB, a $1.75 million collaborative research and development project to significantly lower cellulase cost in the production of biofuels and biobased chemicals. The project builds onto Autodisplay Biotech’s proprietary cell surface display technology which enables a low-cost recovery and re-use of cellulases after […]
In Mexico, a researcher from the Science Institute of the Autonomous University of Puebla is known as the winner of the biodiesel race for having developed methods to reduce production cost by 90% by pairing solar power with biodiesel in order to offset the high energy demand during long periods that biodiesel production requires. Catalysts […]
In Wisconsin, a six-year Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) study on the viability of different bioenergy feedstocks recently demonstrated that perennial cropping systems such as switchgrass, giant miscanthus, poplar, native grasses, and prairie can yield as much biomass as corn stover. The study is significant for beginning to address one of the biofuel industry’s […]
In Maryland, researchers at the University of Maryland have been awarded a patent that ferments biomass or gaseous CO2 and H2 into hexane and octane much like beer with the use of natural microorganisms. This follows a patent that uses a similar technique to produce ethanol but this time directly into hydrocarbon components. The microorganisms […]
In Maryland, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued patent number 9,217,161 for a process to ferment biomass or gases directly to hydrocarbons like hexane and octane. The process belongs to the electrofuels family — technologies involving microorganisms that could use hydrogen or electricity to convert carbon dioxide to liquid fuels. In this process, the […]
In Wisconsin, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) at UW-Madison has teamed with a local high school on a bioprospecting project that is teaching students how to discover new potential production pathways for biofuels. Students have collected potentially yeast-bearing materials from around their campus to try to identify the right yeast to boost production […]
