In California, Stanford University scientists have found a new, highly efficient way to produce liquid ethanol from carbon monoxide gas. This promising discovery could provide an eco-friendly alternative to conventional ethanol production from corn and other crops, say the scientists. Their results are published in the April 9 advanced online edition of the journal Nature.
In North Dakota, researchers at Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory in Mandan have just finished their first year in the field doing trials on oilseeds such as canola, rapeseed, camelina and mustard for aviation biofuels. Researchers are looking for feedstocks that don’t compete with food, are drought tolerant and can grow in wheat-producing areas.
In Spain, Neiker-Tecnalia has coordinated a research project to cultivate microalgae to produce lipids for obtaining biodiesel in a more cost-effective and more environmentally sustainable way. Researchers have optimized all the phases in the production process, from cultivation right up to transformation into biodiesel. The result is a quality biodiesel that is obtained when the […]
In Michigan, poplar trees genetically engineered for deconstruction may be a boon for biofuels, according to a Michigan State University study. “By designing poplars for deconstruction,” says Curtis Wilkerson, “we can improve the degradability of a very useful biomass product. Poplars are dense, easy to store, and they flourish on marginal lands not suitable for […]
In Michigan, what began 20 years ago as an innovation to improve paper industry processes and dairy forage digestibility may now open the door to a much more energy- and cost-efficient way to convert biomass into fuel. The research, which appears in the current issue of Science, focuses on enhancing poplar trees so they can […]
In Germany, a pilot plant developed by researchers Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes will obtain isobutene from sugar instead of oil for the first time. And in order not to threaten food supplies, in the long term the sugar should come from wood or straw and not from sugar beet. The basis of this was […]
In Singapore, scientists from A*STAR’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have developed a high-yield, environmentally friendly way to make adipic acid, an important part of the nylon-making process, out of sugar derived from plant sources. Currently, adipic acid is made commercially from petroleum-based chemicals in a process that emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. […]
In California, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a multi-institutional partnership led by Berkeley Lab, have identified the genetic origins of a microbial resistance to ionic liquids and successfully introduced this resistance into a strain of E. coli bacteria for the production of advanced biofuels. The ionic liquid resistance […]
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene, a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels, such as JP-10, in missiles and other aerospace applications. With improvements in process efficiency, the biofuel could supplement limited supplies of petroleum-based JP-10, and might […]
In New York state, researchers at New York University have created the first ever yeast chromosome using synthetic biology. The new yeast cell, that was created by replacing original chromosomes with synthetic ones, was observed to reproduce. More than 50,000 changes were made to the DNA and researchers can now more easily manipulate the yeast […]
