In Mexico, researchers at the Technical Institute of Celaya say that using biodiesel made from used cooking oil in public transport can reduce pollution by up to 90%. What’s more, the research shows that by using vegetable oil-based fuel the engine is better lubricated and cleaner than by running on petroleum-based fuels. The institute is […]
In Georgia, Randy Dowdy has set the world record for corn yield with an average of 503 bushels per acre using DEKALB corn seed genetics. Dowdy achieved the record as part of the 2014 National Corn Growers Association’s (NCGA) 50th Annual National Corn Yield Contest. The Georgia growing season started off with challenging weather conditions. […]
In Massachusetts, researchers at Harvard have modified genes in bacteria so they produce the exact chemicals that they want to, including how much, reaching up to a 30-fold increase in yields with a process that’s nearly 1,000 times faster than current metabolic engineering methods.
In Malaysia, researchers at the Algae Research Lab in Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur are working with red algae to determine its suitability as feedstock for ethanol production. The species being tested is native to South Korea. Producing ethanol from agar, a byproduct after the algae is cooked, remains very expensive, however.
In Washington state, steam reforming turns methane from biomass into a mixture that can be further converted into transportation fuels. By combining experimental and theoretical approaches, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Institute for Integrated Catalysis determined key properties of potentially more durable rhodium and iridium catalysts, which drive the reactions. Catalysts that […]
In New York state, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded up to $3 million to the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry to develop and demonstrate ways to reduce the cost of delivering woody bioenergy feedstocks to biorefineries. Specifically, the grant will be used to lower the delivered cost of short-rotation woody crops; […]
In Germany, the bioliq pilot plant at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has launched successfully after EUR 64 million in investment. All of the plant’s stages, which produce synthetic fuels from residual biomass, have been successfully connected: flash pyrolysis, high-pressure entrained flow gasification, hot gas cleaning, and synthesis. As the bioliq process is based on […]
In the UK, Brazil’s National Laboratory of Science and Technology of Bioethanol (CTBE) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC), based in York. For the past five years, plant biologists, geneticists and green chemists from across Europe have been working with CTBE experts on sugarcane breeding and bioethanol production, […]
In Canada, it takes some cooking, but turning farm waste into biofuels is now possible and makes economic sense, according to preliminary research from the University of Guelph. Guelph researchers are studying how to make biofuels from farm waste, especially “wet” waste that is typically difficult to use. They have developed a fairly simple procedure […]
In Nebraska, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will explore the “Production of Bioisoprene from Wastewater” (WERF project # NTRY6R14). The research team will convert biomass from wastewater treatment facilities into isoprene (used in production of rubber components of automotive tires), as well as renewable biofuel (methane) using an engineered microbe. Greeley and Hansen is conducting research […]
