In Texas, a recent Texas A&M AgriLife Research study will be published in the BioEnergy Research journal, outlining how mesquite, growing in abundance in some regions of the southwest, could fit into the overall picture for bioenergy. The paper is based on the study, Economic and Greenhouse Gas Efficiency of Honey Mesquite Relative to Other […]
In Connecticut, Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc. (CCAT), a non-profit economic development organization based in East Hartford, Conn., was awarded a Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) to work on Phase II of a project that will determine the feasibility of implementing an alternative fuels facility in rural north-central Connecticut. USDA Rural Development provided $53,000 […]
In Washington, the USDA has released a report that lays out methods for estimating changes in GHG emissions and carbon storage at a local scale for farm, ranch and forest managers. The methods in the report will be used to develop user-friendly tools for farmers, ranchers, forest landowners and other USDA stakeholders to help them […]
In California, research demonstrates that the rapid development of the biofuels sector will result in the industry having an increasingly powerful impact on food prices and food security, according to Rosamond Naylor at a symposium at Stanford University last week. “The main part of this that I think is so significant is the use of […]
In Washington, USDA, EPA and the US DOE published the Biogas Opportunities Roadmap, and concluded that: · Developing a viable biogas industry in the U.S. can boost the economy and provide a reliable, distributed source of renewable energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions · 2,000 biogas sites operate in the U.S. today, and more than 11,000 additional […]
In Indiana, farmers using cover crops as a soil conservation method can remove much more corn stover per acre for biofuels or other uses and at the same time potentially increase their income, Purdue University research shows. Using cover crops – plants such as crimson clover or annual ryegrass that blanket the soil – farmers […]
In New York state, a paper soon to be published by the Journal of Real Estate shows that farmland prices in the Midwest have increased an average of 12.5% per year since 2000 thanks to increased demand for grains, while prices were highest for land located close to ethanol plants. Low interest rates have also […]
In Spain, researchers at the University of Cordoba obtained a new biofuel similar to biodiesel using the 1,3-selective transesterification reaction of sunflower oil with ethanol using as biocatalyst a Rhizopus oryzae lipase (ROL) immobilized on Sepiolite, an inorganic support. The studied lipase was a low cost powdered enzyme preparation, Biolipase-R, from Biocon-Spain, a multipurpose additive […]
In Hawaii, Gov. Neil Abercrombie presented a $1.6 million check on behalf of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture’s (HDOA) Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) to the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center’s (DKI-PBARC) zero-waste biofuel and high-protein feed program on Hawaii Island. DKI-PBARC, and Florida-based BioTork LLC, have invested more than $1 million […]
In California, a powerful new tool that can help advance the genetic engineering of “fuel” crops for clean, green and renewable bioenergy, has been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a multi-institutional partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The JBEI researchers have developed an […]
